LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap.. Copyright No*. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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BY 



REV. JOHN D. HACKER 




TEB 11 1007 



PRESS OF E. W. STEPHENS, 

COLUMBIA, MO. 
I8 97 . 



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Entered according- to Act of Congress in the year 1S97, by Rev. John D. Hacker, 
in the office of Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



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PREFACE, 



TN HIS work as pastor, the author has experienced 
* some little difficulty in selecting a suitable course 
of brief doctrinal study for the young people of his 
church. He has found it easy to select satisfactory 
material for such a course of study on a given phase 
of almost any single subject, i. e., the design or 
the act of baptism, but on the question of the 
"church" as a whole, there seems to be but little liter- 
ature apart from published discussions. That Baptists 
are not understood by the masses is well known. And 
this lack of understanding of our principles is a source 
of much prejudice against us. It is gratifying to see 
such a widespread desire upon the part of the young of 
our churches to acquire more knowledge of the scrip- 
tures. This should meet with a hearty response from 
every pastor. Every pursuit of life demands, more and 
more, skilled laborers, and this demand is being more 
and more made of those who labor in the cause of our 
Master. And, too, more and more the entire member- 
ship is coming to realize that there is a place in the 
work of the church for each member to fill. "We have 
sympathy with this. Every pastor ought to have sym- 
pathy with it. We should also remember that large 
forces of undisciplined and untrained troops are often- 
times a menace to the cause for which they stand. 
Our Baptist young people stand for all that our princi- 

3 



4 Church of Christ. 

pies mean to the cause of our Redeemer. We believe 
that those principles are essential to the salvation of 
the race. Hence, this being true, how important it is 
to so establish the young of our churches in these 
principles, that they may take up the work when the 
fathers lay it down and prosecute it with credible vigor 
to its final victory. 

Strong convictions of the truth of a position are 
essential to loyal labor and sacrifice for its main- 
tenance. 

Given, a congregation of people thoroughly estab- 
lished in Baptist principles, and heartily enjoying 
inwardly the blessings which those principles stand for, 
and any pastor so blessed has an invincible power 
associated with him in his labors. It has been the aim 
of the author to bring out in as brief a way as possible 
the cardinal principles for which Baptists stand, and at 
the same time to so compare them with other Christian 
communities as to lead the reader to form for himself 
his own conclusions as to whether Baptist principles 
are worth contending for or not. 

It is not claimed for the work that it is an exhaust- 
ive treatise of the questions considered. It is only 
intended to be a mere outline, leaving to the reader 
the priceless privilege of extending the field of investiga- 
tion on each phase of the question. The aim has been to 
supply the place of a suggestive text for the busy young 
people of our churches, and thereby place at their 
ready command sufficient matter to enable them to 
intelligently equip themselves for every good word and 



Preface. 5 

work. How well the author has succeeded in this 
undertaking he is not prepared to judge. Of that he 
shall be satisfied with the verdict of his brethren, be 
that what it may. 

He sends the work forth accompanied by a prayer 
that it may be blessed of God in making many of our 
young people happy and loyal in the work to which 
Christ has called them. -And if, when our works are 
all tried by the impartial judge, it is found that one 
single soul has been made wiser, or better, or happier, 
or more loyal and devoted to our Lord's cause, then 
shall the author be amply paid for his toil. 

Authoe. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. — The Meaning of Ecclesia. — Its use among the 

Greeks, and in the Septuagint and New Testament scriptures ... 21 

CHAPTER II. — When the Church was Constituted. — John the 
Baptist's ministry, the preparatory stage. Christ's ministry, 
the period of actual construction. Identity and objections an- 
swered 31 

CHAPTER III. — The Distinguishing Features of the Church. — 
Four basal doctrines: Episcopacy opposed to the New Testa- 
ment idea of the church. Baptismal salvation not scriptural. 
Infant baptism not of God. Regeneration the basal doctrine of 
the New Testament church 100 

CHAPTER IV. — The Functions of the Church.— To preach the 
gospel to all, and keep the ordinances as they were delivered to 
the first churches, with the abuses to which both the functions 
of the church in general, and the ordinances in particular, have 
been subjected 194 

CHAPTER V. — Historical Permanency of the Church. — The 
provisions made for it. The doctrine of church apostasy and 
reformation. Some views of the church in uninspired history.. 304 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION OP THE EXTERNAL 

INSTITUTIONS OP CHRISTIANITY. 
| 

WITHIN the scope of human thought there is not 
to be found a question involving the destiny of 
man more than the one discussed by the writer of this 
book. Neither has there ever been a greater need of 
scriptural teaching on this question than at the present 
time. Hence, the writing of this volume requires no 
apology. 

Not a more important inquiry can be made by the 
craving soul of the Christian reader. He wants to 
know, and has a right to know, whether or not the insti- 
tution of which he is a member is fashioned after the 
apostolic model of Christ's church. He is not satisfied 
with the doctrine, so extensively accepted, that all the 
so-called churches have equal claims. 

More than that, in the time of so much partisan 
strife, so many different opinions and theories, in the 
time of wild commotion and conflicting demands, in 
the midst of blended religions and civilizations, when 
"the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after 
wisdom," for one to arrive at an honest and satisfac- 
tory conclusion on this question, he must have the 
courage of his convictions and "faith in the gospel as 
the power and wisdom of God." Men of the highest 



8 The Divine Constitution of the 

intelligence, the broadest culture, and the deepest sense 
of integrity, whose scholarship and opinions on other 
questions command attention and respect, on this 
question are greatly biased and fall short of using the 
same logic that they are accustomed to use in the dis- 
cussion of other questions. So much so, that we are 
often amazed and caused to wonder why it is that men 
can not give full scope to their reasoning faculties in 
religion as in other things. 

In the discussion of the church question, it is but 
reasonable to assume that the external institutions of 
Christianity originated in the mind of the Divine 
Being. Their forms and order, delineated in the New 
Testament scriptures, are of divine appointment, and 
therefore of divine obligation. The Bible furnishes a 
definite and final constitution of the church, its minis- 
try and all its ordinances, and is on this question, as 
on all questions pertaining to the Christian religion, 
the equally sufficient guide and only authority. Let 
no man supplement, take from, or commute in any 
manner, the divine model there given. He who tam- 
pers with G-od's word on this question acts on his own 
responsibility and at his own risk. "To obey is better 
than sacrifice." This is the position conscientiously 
taken and zealously defended by Baptists everywhere. 

Against this position is arrayed a multitudinous 
throng of objectors, of individual opinions, of blended 
theories, and of combined purposes, often reaching the 
most inconsistent conclusions by resorting to the most 
glaring sophisms, However, these objectors may be 
reduced to two classes. 



External Institutions of Christianity . 9 

I. 

The principles inculcated and position taken by 
the first class embody what is commonly known as 
the doctrine of expediency. As in the time of Celsus, 
men say: "The man who can believe it possible for 
Greeks and Barbarians, in Asia, Europe, and Libya to 
agree in one code of religious laws, must be utterly 
devoid of sense." And the men who take this posi- 
tion and point out this way constitute no mean class. 

These men, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, 
stand to-day as representatives of one of the most 
powerful elements of Christian civilization. They have 
increased in wealth, culture, social influence, and 
everything else which the circumstances tend to pro- 
duce, until they have reached a point when they must 
be met, if met at all, by God's truth, presented in the 
most powerful manner. 

With much tact and bold presumption, this class 
insists upon there being no divine requirement as to 
the form of Christian institutions. They teach that 
the form is a matter of expediency, to be determined 
by men themselves according to the varied and ever- 
changing needs and conditions of human society. The 
German scholar, Neander, for thirty-eight years pro- 
fessor of Church History at the University of Berlin, 
his works winning for him the title of the "father of 
church history," explicitly says: "The apostles gave 
the church this particular organization, which, while it 
was best adapted to the circumstances and relations of 



10 The Divine Constitution of the 

the church at that time, was also best suited to the 
extension of the churches in their peculiar condition, 
and for the development of the inward principles of 
their communion. But forms may change with every 
change of circumstances. Whenever, at a later pe- 
riod, any form of church government has arisen out of 
a series of events according to the direction of divine 
providence, and is organized and governed with regard 
to the Lord's will, he may be said himself to have 
established it and to operate through it by his spirit." 

In substance, Whately and Stillingfieet, and many 
modern popular leaders of religious thought, teach the 
same doctrine. According to these writers, all the 
different forms of church and of the ordinances are 
equally valid. The only requirement is the adaptation 
to the age and circumstances in which they exist. 
With them expediency is the paramount test of validity. 

Eeplying to this class of objectors, we call atten- 
tion to the following facts which we believe to be con- 
clusive : 

First. If the New Testament scriptures teach 
anything, they teach explicitly that the apostles were 
inspired expressly for the complete establishment of 
the Christian institutions. When Christ spoke these 
words unto them, "Verily, I say unto you, what things 
soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; 
and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18), it is evident from the 
context that he referred to the order and government 
of the church. This, with other promises not less 



External Institutions of Christianity. 11 

explicit, gave them assurance of divine sanction and 
guidance in their official acts in the completion of the 
external organization of Christianity. This example 
has for us, as well as for men of all ages, the binding 
authority of divine law. The apostles established these 
institutions with complete and definite form not to be 
changed in the future history of the church. The same 
condition of church membership, the same spiritual 
character, the same general duties, were required every- 
where. 

The same officers were ordained in every church. 
These officers were of two orders, bishops, or elders, 
and deacons (Acts 14:23; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-15). 
At all places where the apostles organized churches 
they instituted the same ordinances, baptism and the 
Lord's supper (Eom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 11:20-34). The 
men who labored with and under the direction of the 
apostles were instructed to establish churches with 
ordinances in accordance with the original model. In 
his epistles to Timothy and Titus, Paul uses the most 
painstaking care in directions in reference to the 
constitution and order of the "house of Grod, which is 
the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of 
the truth" (1 Tim. 3:1-15; Tit. 1:5). In fact, while 
throughout the entire New Testament much space is 
given to the instruction on these external institutions, 
sparing no pains to emphasize their importance, so, 
also, is the permanence of their form clearly demon- 
strated. Doubtless, in a few instances, these instruc- 
tions refer to usages purely local and transient, yet the 



12 The Divine Constitution of the 

main bulk of them are as manifestly permanent as 
Christianity itself, and are valid for all nations and for 
all ages. The whole drift of the teachings of the 
scriptures tends to prove that the church and the 
ordinances had a definite and well defined form and 
order in the apostolic age, and are everywhere under- 
stood and spoken of as being established by apostolic 
authority. 

We do not undertake to say that there is to be 
found anywhere in the scriptures any formulated state- 
ment of an ecclesiastical constitution; neither is there 
to be found a formulated scientific statement of a sys- 
tem of Christianity. Yet no intelligent Christian man 
would say that the latter fact proves that the Bible 
contains no system of divine truth ; neither does the 
former fact prove that it does not contain a definite 
ecclesiastical constitution. Grod has plainly set forth, 
both in nature and in revelation, manifold principles; 
and as a means of mental and spiritual development, 
has made it obligatory on men, by the exercise of all 
their mental and spiritual powers in the careful inves- 
tigation and comparison of these principles and facts, 
to evolve therefrom the system of truth and the eccle- 
siastical constitution found in the Bible. And if the 
apostles, in establishing these institutions, acted under 
the guidance of the infallible spirit, it necessarily fol- 
lows that their example, on being clearly ascertained, 
furnishes all the force of a divine precept, and carries 
with it the same obligation as that of divine law. 
More than that, it follows that this ecclesiastical con- 



External Institutions of Christianity. 13 

stitution delineated in the New Testament scriptures, 
having been divinely established by the apostles, there 
being no inspired authority subsequent to that of the 
apostles competent to change or abolish it, remains 
unchanged and unchangeable, and is alone valid. 

Second. The scriptures prove beyond a reason- 
able doubt that Christ had in his mind a definite con- 
ception of a model church and its ordinances, and so 
taught his disciples. Cf. Matt. 18:17, where in giving 
directions respecting the discipline of an offending 
brother, when all other means should fail, he requires 
as the last resort: "Tell it unto the church; and if he 
refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto them 
as the Grentile and the publican. " In this passage he 
addresses the apostles in a manner which compels one 
to believe that they clearly recognize the existence of 
the church as an ecclesiastical institution. Hence, it 
necessarily follows that it had either already been 
instituted by Christ or so clearly defined by him that 
they fully understood his meaning. He expressly 
appointed the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's 
supper. The form of the one he distinctly defined 
both by the word employed and also by his own exam- 
ple furnished ; the other by his own personal adminis- 
tration. The objector has gained nothing by denying 
that Christ established the institutions of the gospel; 
for we do know that they were either established by 
him, or appointed, and afterwards completely and per- 
fectly established by the apostles according to the con- 
stitution and order which he had prescribed. If they 



14 The Divine Constitution of the 

were established by the apostles in accordance with the 
prescription and divine sanction of Christ , their exam- 
ple carries with it his full authority. 

Third. Besides, the outward institutions of Chris- 
tianity must needs have in the New Testament some 
distinguishing characteristics by which they are clearly 
known; otherwise the duties enjoined in connection 
with them could never be performed with any degree 
of certainty. If the scriptures fail to tell what a church 
is, how can a believer know that he is a member of a 
church? If they do not make plain what baptism is, 
how can he know that he has been baptized! Such a 
condition of things is not in accordance with God's 
character, plan, and teachings. He never says do a 
thing without giving explicit directions how to do it. 
In reference to this question, the duties required neces- 
sarily imply a divinely revealed form of the church and 
the ordinances. Otherwise God would have imposed 
the most solemn obligations upon men without afford- 
ing them any means of knowing how to perform them. 
The necessity of divine direction and the authority of 
apostolic example are universally recognized. As 
proof of this fact, it is only necessary to notice with 
what zeal all religious bodies, in the final struggle for 
support, seek to maintain the validity of their organiza- 
tions and ordinances by an appeal to the teachings of 
the New Testament scriptures, showing conclusively 
the felt necessity of the support contained therein. 

Fourth. The Mosaic institutions were established 
by divine appointment and after a divine model, not to 



External Institutions of Christianity . 15 

be changed or abolished by the fallible judgment of 
man. The Old Testament scriptures are filled with 
positive and unmistakable evidence of this fact. The 
reason is found in their character as symbols of divine 
truth. To change the symbol would be to change the 
object symbolized, which would be the destruction of 
the whole matter. The entire ancient ritual of Judaism 
was a visible revelation of God's thoughts; and he 
alone could select and direct the mode of their expres- 
sion. Monuments of the violation of God's direct 
commands stand out in bold relief on the pages of 
sacred history and bid men beware how they treat his 
authority. Men, ignorant of the truths to be expressed, 
could not originate these symbols, neither could they 
change them without changing the ideas to be symbol- 
ized. Consequently God himself established institu- 
tions, forms, and ordinances, and made them unchange- 
able by man, so that there was nothing left on the part 
of man but to obey. So, also, the Christian institu- 
tions, like the Mosaic, are a visible expression of divine 
truth, and a change of form by man must needs impair 
or pervert their meaning as symbols of God's thought. 
All the reasons which forbade man's changing the form 
of these ancient institutions still exist with full force to 
forbid a change in the Christian, and a higher reason 
besides. Just as the significance of Christianity is 
higher than that of Judaism, so the forms in which the 
former finds expression are of higher importance and 
more obligatory than those of the latter, and should be 
regarded more sacred and preserved more zealously 
from human mutilation. 



16 The Divine Constitution of the 

II. 

The second class of objectors whose arguments 
have to be met, are those who give undue weight to 
the authority of the church fathers. They hold to the 
doctrine that these Christian institutions to which we 
have referred existed only in germ form at the end of 
the apostolic period, that neither Christ nor the 
apostles positively established a model church with 
definite form and ordinances. They regard the writings 
of the church fathers up to the end of the sixth century 
as supplementing the teachings of the New Testament 
scriptures, and accept with equal force the authority of 
Christ and the apostles, and that of the fathers. Their 
doctrine differs from that of expediency in that they 
restrict the length of time during which the Christian 
institutions may be subject to changes. With them 
"the church of the living God" is the church of the 
first six centuries, and not that of the New Testament. 

To this class we reply that we concede that the 
fathers are of great value in the history of biblical 
interpretation, in the history of dogmas, creeds, rituals, 
even in the history of the constitution of the church, 
and, indeed, in every part of historical theology; nor is 
there any part of theology in which they may not be 
made highly useful. In the great internal struggles of 
the church the importance of the fathers as witnesses 
or authority has been recognized by all claimants. We 
further grant that this recognition is not restricted to 
the earlier history of the Christian religion, but is 



External Institutions of Christianity. 17 

found in the most recent controversies. Notwithstand- 
ing this fact, it is plainly to be seen : 

First. That the scriptures give no intimation of 
imperfection in the apostolic organization of Chris- 
tianity; on the contrary, in their teachings they 
expressly require a conformity to the apostolic model. 
Paul in his epistle to Titus (Tit. 1:5) addresses him in 
the following language: "For this cause left I thee in 
Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that 
were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I 
gave thee charge. ' ' Explicit directions are not wanting 
respecting the membership, the officers, and discipline 
of the churches, and the ordinances to be administered, 
with no intimation of any change to be made in after 
years by clearer and more specific instructions. There 
is no doubt but that the germ form of these Christian 
institutions was gradually developed during the apos- 
tolic period, but all the evidence tends to prove that 
they reached their ultimate constitution before the end 
of the time when men acted, spoke, and wrote by the 
direction of divine inspiration. 

Second. According to the representation of the 
Christian institutions by the writings of the fathers, 
they were radically different at different times during 
what is known as the patristic period. For instance, 
there was much difference between the forms and 
practices of the second and those of the fifth century. 
The churches of the second century were simple and 
parochial, each complete within itself, electing its own 
bishop, deacons, and presbyters, while the world-organ- 



18 The Divine Constitution of the 

ization, called the church of the fifth century, with its 
hierarchy of metropolitan, diocesan bishops and multi- 
tudinous priestly officials was modeled after the con- 
stitution of the Roman Empire. The difference was so 
radical and fundamental, both in form and in principle, 
that the former can not be conceived as being the germ 
from which the latter was developed. Hence, if we 
were dependent upon the fathers for information, such 
an appeal would leave us in utter uncertainty in refer- 
ence to the true church. 

Third. If we are to depend upon the authority of 
men other than the apostles to decide the question as 
to the form of the Christian institutions, logically 
speaking, we can not possibly be restricted to the 
patristic period. Hence, in that case, we should be 
compelled to accept the Romish doctrine of a continued 
inspiration in reference to the church. This patristic 
doctrine is in perfect harmony with authority based 
upon an inspiration to be continued through all ages 
to supplement the Bible by defining and perfecting its 
statements of doctrine and duty according to the 
Roman Catholic notion. There is no sufficient reason 
for restricting the time of changing and developing 
forms to any particular period ; but on the contrary, if 
such a change were indicated or allowed, the logical 
conclusion would be that the process would continue 
through all ages even unto the end of time. 

The patristic theory of development, which denies 
the sufficiency of the scriptures, subverts the funda- 
mental principles of Protestantism and has no logical 



External Institutions of Christianity . 19 

place among Protestants; on the contrary, it is in 
harmony with Roman Catholicism which boldly claims 
the right to lead the minds of men away from the 
infallible authority of God's word to the fallible author- 
ity of man. The only difference between the patristic 
and the Eoman theories consists in a lack of con- 
sistency in the former, which is found in the latter, 
and yet both are equally unscriptural. To accept the 
one is to accept the other. 

We claim that neither the doctrine of expediency 
nor the patristic theory has its fundamental principles 
based upon the teachings of the New Testament scrip- 
tures, and they should not to be accepted. Baptists uni- 
versally claim that these external institutions originated 
in the mind of God; that these forms and ordinances 
are delineated in the scriptures, and that no system of 
religion is valid, which has not been evolved out of the 
principles contained therein. Dr. Harvey, whose argu- 
ments are invaluable on this subject, states a most 
admirable truth when he says: "The Bible, therefore, 
is the all-sufficient guide and the only authority in 
respect to the outward institutions of Christianity. 
Whatever principles it inculcates, whatever forms it 
establishes, as pertaining to these institutions, are of 
solemn obligation. No man has the right to disregard 
or alter or abolish them ; every such assumption is an 
invasion of the prerogatives of God. ' ' 

God's word is infinitely severe to those who are 
disposed to follow the natural inclinations of their own 
minds, yet infinitely gentle to those who are ready to 



2^ The Church of Christ. 

respond to its teachings, and whose lives are controlled 
by its claims. May the principles of that word, so ably 
and admirably presented by the writer of this volume, 
be the means of leading many believers into the church 
whose model was conceived and prescribed by Christ 
and completely established by his apostles, and many 
unregenerated souls into the light and liberty of Grod's 
children. Rev. S. H. Ballakd, A. M. 



Definition of the Term Ecclesia. 21 

CHAPTER I. 

THE MEANING OP THE WORD ECCLESIA OR 

CHURCH. 

Definition of the Term Ecclesia. 

N TO question of Christian history is fraught with 
* ^ greater interests, nor has any been the cause of 
more partisan strife than that of the church. This 
suggests the prevalence of a variety of conflicting 
theories and opinions on the question. Theories in 
conflict, as to when and how the church at first arose, 
of whom composed, for what purpose it exists, and its 
relation to the ordinances of the New Testament. 
These theories in general, have been divided into endless 
minor theories, greatly adding to the perplexity of the 
public mind on the question. It is a question to which 
every Christian student should bring a prayerful heart 
and submissive will, since, if the word of God provides 
for the church, it is the duty of every Christian to be a 
member of it. 

It is obvious that in determining this question, 
final appeal is to be had to the scriptures, since the 
church is the creature of the same, and not the creature 
of uninspired history. The place occupied by history 
is negative, showing rather what is not the church than 
what is the church. To illustrate: Since the church 
is presumably the creature of the word of God, and not 
that of uninspired history, it is manifest that a church 
of purely uninspired historic origin can lay no claim to 
biblical origin, and hence none to the church. 



22 The Church of Christ. 

Thus uninspired history serves to show what may 
not be called the church, by pointing out the beginning 
of many so-called churches far this side of the close of 
the canon of the New Testament. 

The historic beginning, the features, the functions, 
and the historical permanency of the church, must be 
provided for in God's word, else it does not constitute 
a court of final appeal in things pertaining to the 
church. My duty to the class may be stated in the 
following manner: 

I. Define the term ecclesia or church. 
II. Show ivhen first constituted. 

III. Point out the distinguishing feature of the church. 

IV. Show ivliat the functions of the church are. 

V. Point out the historical permanency of the church. 

Addressing myself to this task, I call your atten- 
tion to the first proposition : 

What does the word ecclesia or church mean! 

Many of the annoying divisions existing among 
those who are God's children, are due to a vagueness 
in defining the term. And it should be admitted in 
the outset, that Baptists have contributed somewhat to 
this condition of things. A speaker or writer announces 
his theme, the church, which he defines to be an 
assembly convoked by the call of the gospel, and for 
the ends of the gospel. He soon reaches the conclu- 
sion that the Baptist church has all the elements 
required by the word ecclesia, and, therefore, must be 
the church. 

Our contention is, that standing on its own merits 
and usus loquendi, there is nothing in the word ecclesia 



Definition of the Term Ecclesia. 23 

which proves more than the mere fact of an assembly. 
The character and purposes of the assembly are to be 
determined by other sources than the mere meaning 
of the term. 

The word ecclesia has by some been given undue 
prominence in the settlement of the question, while 
by still others its importance has been minimized. 

Let us now seek to determine the value of this 
word in the definition of the proposition. 

I. The meaning of the term in Greek usage. Per- 
haps the Greek ecclesia reached its most ideal state 
under Solon's Codification of Greek Laws. The exec- 
utive department of the government was in the hands 
of the Archons. This body, composed of nine persons, 
was no part of the ecclesia. Executive functions, there- 
fore, did not belong to the Greek ecclesia. There was 
also a judiciary body — the Areopagus, and a senate 
which was nominally an executive body. Legislative 
functions were either appointed into the hands of 
special persons, or assumed by some tyrant. The 
ecclesia of the Greeks was neither executive, judiciary, 
nor legislative. What then was its unique position in 
the Greek polity? 

It ivas the assembly of all the citizens, at the call of 
heralds, having free ballot and hence the power of approval 
or veto. 

This was the general usage of the term in Greek 
history. The inherent idea of the word is simply that 
of an assembly. The fact of its prerogatives must be 
determined from the instrument calling the ecclesia into 
being.. 



24 The Church of Christ. 

II. The Greek use of the term in the translation 
of the Hebrew scriptures in what is known as the 
Septuagint. 

In the Hebrew scriptures, frequent mention is 
made of the assemblies of Israel, and the Hebrew word 
used is hahal; now the seventy translate this word by 
ecclesia, without regard to the character or functions of 
the particular assembly. 

In Judges 21:8, the hosts of Israel that assembled 
to cut off the tribe of Benjamin, is called an ecclesia, 
a church. Here the character and purpose of this 
particular church is learned from the cause, or call, 
which led to the comiug together. In Job 15:34, we 
have this use: "For the ecclesia of the hypocrites shall 
be desolate;' 7 and in Proverbs 21:16, we have this use 
of it: "Shall remain in the ecclesia — church — of the 
dead. 7 ' 

In fact, it was the word used when speaking of an 
assembly or multitude of men variously brought to- 
gether, and for various purposes, as an assembly of 
troops, of nations, of the dead, and of hypocrites. 

III. The use of the term ecclesia in the New 
Testament. 

And here we have an equal diversity of uses. 

In his defense, Stephen uses the term as descrip- 
tive of the children of Israel during the forty years 
of wilderness wanderings, whether they were engaged 
in worshiping the golden calf, or in murmuring against 
God and Moses, or whether engaged, as they some- 
times were, in devout and holy service. "This is he 



Definition of the Term Bcclesia. 25 

that was with the ecclesia in the wilderness." Acts 
7:38. From this use of the word, some conclude that 
the church existed in Old Testament times. This 
would be a legitimate deduction, if the word were never 
applied to any character of assembly but that of the 
New Testament church. But in Acts 19:32, 39, and 
41, the term is applied to the idolatrous mob instigated 
by Demetrius, the silversmith at Ephesus. It is more 
than certain that this mob was not a New Testament 
church, and yet it was an ecclesia, in the lawful use of 
that term. 

In general, throughout Greek usage, the word was 
applied to any assembly of people, for whatever ends 
assembled, or in whatever manner brought together, 
unless otherwise specifically called by another name. 
The methods of calling, the character of the assembly, 
with its functions and ends in view, are to be determined 
by other considerations than the meaning of the word. 
It is not wise to claim for a word more than its current 
use warrants. 

This has been done for this word both by Baptists 
and pedobaptists. Apart from other considerations, 
it simply means an assembly. Taken in connection 
with the instrument of calling, in the New Testament, 
it means assembled together by the call of the gospel, and 
for the ends conferred by the gospel. 

It will be observed that the character of the called, 
the manner of confederation, and the ends contemplated, 
are to be determined by the instrument of the call or 
the cause of assembling. 



26 The Church of Christ. 

One or two examples will serve to illustrate. Take 
the assembly of the dead, a moment ago referred too. 
The instrument of the call in that instance was death, 
the character of the assembly was that of persons dead, 
the manner of association was dying, and the end in 
view was the dominion of death. All of this may be 
known as true, just as soon as we speak of the assembly 
of the dead. 

Another example is that of the riotous ecclesia of 
Acts, 19th chapter. The instrument of the call was one 
Demetrius, a silversmith whose business was being 
interf erred with by the preaching of Paul. The char- 
acter of the assembly was that of idolators. The 
manner of association, or the bond of coming together, 
was idolatry. The ends contemplated to ere high tariff 
ends, protection of the silver craft, and ascription of 
praise to Diana. 

And in like manner was it of the Jews under the 
law, when assembled. There was the instrument of 
the call, the law of Moses. There was the character 
of the people assembled, circumcised Hebrews and 
aliens. There was the manner of association, the 
bonds of the law. And there was the end in view, the 
keeping of the law, in the observation of the require- 
ments of the same. 

Each of these assemblies were churches, acting, 
each under the respective cause which convoked it, 
and for the ends contemplated in the special convoca- 
tion. It would be folly, however, to call any one of 
them the church, simply because it happens to be 



Definition of the Term Ecclesia. 27 

designated by the same word ecclesia. This is just 
what our pedobaptist friends do in the case of the 
Hebrew ecclesia, and for no better reason than it is 
designated by the same term as that of the New Testa- 
ment church. 

As well might one say, the congress of the United 
States is the ecclesia of the New Testament, for truly it 
is an ecclesia, in the sense of the use of that term. 

There is still another sense in which the word is 
used in the New Testament. It is used of an ideal 
assembly. This use has contributed no little to the 
pedobaptist definition of the church, viz.: That it 
embraces the saved of all ages and dispensations, 
whether infants or believers; and hence, it has no par- 
ticular organic form under the New Testament dispen- 
sation, but on the contrary, is comprehended in the saved 
of all churches, with their offspring. Evidently God 
would not invite any one to come out of his church, if 
this view were correct, since to be saved would be to 
be in the church, and this membership would not be in 
the least affected by being federated with any of the 
various organizations known as churches, and forming 
each a part of the whole according to this view. But 
God does invite his people, those divinely recognized 
as saved, and therefore, in the church according to this 
view, to come out of the Catholic church, and for a 
significant reason at that. "Come forth, my people, 
out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her, and that 
ye receive not of her plagues. " Rev. 18:4. 

Here are persons who are recognized as saved, and 
in the ideal church, and yet not members of the New 



23 The Church of Chi'ist. 

Testament church. The point is, that God does not 
recognize the organic church, as comprehending all who 
are in the ideal church. And more than this, he does 
not recognize all the organic bodies, claiming to be the 
church or parts of it, as making up the New Testament 
church. He clearly holds the church, as an organized 
body, to be distinct from the ideal church. Let us 
examine two passages in which the word ecclesia is 
used in this ideal way. The first is Eph. 5:25: 
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved 
the ecclesia — church — and gave himself up for it." 
Here the word is used in purely an ideal way, as 
representing the finished work for which the atonement 
was offered. This embraces all the saved in all ages, 
many of whom never belonged to any organic form of 
Christianity, neither under the law, nor yet under the 
gospel. The other passage, Heb. 12:23: "But ye are 
come unto the general assembly and church of the first- 
born, who are enrolled in heaven," represents the same 
idea — the finished work for which the atonement was 
offered. 

This ideal use of the word ecclesia does not militate 
against its meaning when used as descriptive of the 
church, the only organic form of New Testament Chris- 
tianity, any more than does its use to describe the 
assembly of the dead, or of hypocrites, or of the riotous 
mob at Ephesus, destroy its certain meaning when used 
to describe the church. In each instance, we are left 
to determine the exact character of the ecclesia by the 
peculiar circumstances belonging to the particular 
assembly. 



Definition of the Term Ecclesia. 29 

Applying these principles to the New Testament 
ecclesia, we have the following: 

First. The church is an assembly of people. 
This being true, the ideal conception is precluded. 
With that therefore, we need have nothing to do, it 
having nothing to do with the church to which we are 
commanded to join ourselves. 

Second. The church is an assembly of persons 
convoked by the call of the gospel. This precludes 
the call of the law. With that we have nothing to do in 
determining this question. The law, with its institu- 
tions, approaches the gospel and its institutions no closer 
than type approaches the thing typified. It not being 
possible to identify a type with that which it typifies, 
it is not, therefore, possible to identify the ecclesia of 
the law with that of the gospel. The law being done 
away, the ecclesia which it called into being is likewise 
done away. 

Third. The church is an assembly of regenerated 
persons. 

The new nature thus conferred constitutes the 
distinguishing feature in the character of those com- 
posing the New Testament church. "Except a man 
be born anew, he can not see the kingdom of God." 
John 3:3. As this inner condition is made necessary 
to confederation in the ecclesia of the gospel, but was 
not essential to confederation with the ecclesia of the 
law, it is just to conclude that identity is not 
possible. 

In fact, "Christ came unto his own (the Old Tes- 
tament ecclesia) and his own received him not. But 



30 The Church of Christ. 

as many as received him, to them gave he power to 
become the children of God, even to them that believed 
on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the 
will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God." John 
1:11-13. 

Here the characters of those composing the Old and 
New Testament ecclesia are vividly contrasted. One, 
a people which reject Christ; the other, a people which 
receive him. 

Fourth. The church is an assembly of people 
voluntarily associated together under the call of the 
gospel. 

Everywhere in the New Testament, from the call 
of the first disciple to the close of the canon, only such 
were admitted to federation in the church, as of their 
own motion sought it. In the gospels, throughout the 
Acts, and in the addresses of the various epistles writ- 
ten to the local churches, this principle is recognized. 
In the Jewish ecclesia, fleshly birth, and circumcision 
in unconscious babyhood admitted to federation in the 
same; under the gospel, it is by a voluntary action, the 
exercise of personal choice. 

Fifth. The church is an assembly, the functions 
and ends of which are prescribed by the gospel, the 
instrument through the call of which it has its 
existence. 

The ecclesia of Athens was a church, but it had no 
connection with the gospel, and hence no gospel ends 
and functions to fulfill. It was convoked by Athenian 
law and for such ends as were laid down by that law. 



John the Baptist's Ministry. 31 

The Old Testament assembly was an ecclesia, con- 
voked by the law, and for the ends laid down in the 
law. So, also, with the New Testament ecclesia. Each 
is the creature of different codes of law, and for 
different ends prescribed by the code of law respectively 
giving rise to each. Under the gospel, the church may 
be defined to be: An assembly of persons convoked by 
the call of the gospel through regeneration and voluntary 
confederation with Christ under the gospel, for the purpose 
of keeping 'the order of and preaching the gospel to the 
ivorld. This, we believe to cover the grounds of the 
New Testament church. What we have to say in the 
subsequent treatment of the question, will be said in 
the maintenance of the views here set forth. 



CHAPTER II. 



WHEN THE CHURCH WAS CONSTITUTED. 
John the Baptist's Ministry — The Preparatory Stage. 

ET it be observed that much difference of opinion 
^ exists as to the exact time when the church was 
constituted. This difference has been greatly influenced 
by the peculiar doctrines intended to be fostered upon 
the church. Pedobaptists, fostering infant baptism 
and church membership, as flowing out of circumcision ; 
and affusion for baptism, as flowing from the cere- 
monial cleansings of the law, seek in the very nature 



32 John the Baptist's Ministry. 

of the case to establish the beginning of the church 
with the choice and call of Abraham. The correctness 
of this view depends solely upon an identity of the 
law and the gospel. This, we think, is impossible. One 
special feature of the ministry of Jesus, much empha- 
sized by the apostles, is, that he took the law out of 
the way, because its ordinances were against us. In 
Colossians 2:14, the doctrine is thus stated: "Having 
blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was 
against us, which was contrary to us; and he hath 
taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. " In 
Ephesians 1:15, the same writer states it again, and in 
much the same manner, saying: "Having abolished in 
his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments 
contained in ordinances, that he might create in him- 
self of the twain one new man, so making peace.' 7 
Here the apostle carefully states two things: 

First. The law that is abolished, viz. : "The law 
of commandments contained in ordinances." 

Second. The purpose in doing this, viz.: "That 
he might create in himself of the twain one new man." 

That the identity of the law and the gospel is not 
possible, is obvious from another viewpoint. The law 
kills while the gospel makes alive. This being true, 
the effect of the law is death, while that of the gospel 
is life. In II Corinthians 2:6, ft', the thought is 
developed at some length, "who also made us sufficient 
as ministers of a new covenant ; not of the letter, but 
of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
life." Here we have an old covenant in contrast with 
a new one, with respect to the effects of each. 



The Preparatory Stage. 33 

First. The old covenant killeth. That there may 
be no occasion for mistake as to his meaning, he con- 
tinues: "But if the ministration of death, written and 
engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the chil- 
dren of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of 
Moses for the glory; which glory was passing away." 
The reference is to the ten commandments, and sug- 
gests the purpose, and time limitation in view in giving 
the law. The purpose was to manifest sin, "for 
through the law cometh the knowledge of sin." Eom. 
3:21. And in Romans 7:7, ff, the apostle adds his 
personal experience to the same effect, saying: "How- 
beit, I had not known sin, except through the law. * * * 
And I was alive apart from the law once ; but when the 
commandment came, sin revived and I died; and the 
commandment which was unto life, I found to be unto 
death." Thus it is apparent that the purpose of the 
law was to teach men to know themselves as sinners 
condemned before God, and as such unable to save 
themselves, and in this sense it served as "our school 
master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justi- 
fied by faith." Gal. 3:24. 

As to the time limitation in view in giving the law, 
the same apostle expressly tells us: "That the law was 
added because of transgressions (that men might know 
that they were transgressors), till the seed should come 
to whom the promise hath been made; and it was; 
ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator." 
Gal. 3:19. 

3 



34 jfohn the Baptist's Ministry. 

When Christ, the seed, came, the bound of time 
for the removal of the law, because of the weakness 
thereof, had been reached. 

"For there is a disannulling of a foregoing com- 
mandment because of its weakness and unprofitable- 
ness (for the law made nothing perfect) and a bringing 
in thereon of a better hope, through which we draw 
nigh unto God." Heb. 7:18, f. 

Let us now turn for a moment to the opposite 
thought of the passage from II Corinthians 2:6. It 
is of a new covenant, one which giveth life, not death. 
The old covenant, the law, was given by Moses; grace 
and truth, the new covenant, came by Jesus Christ. 
John 1:17. A covenant is a mutual consent, or agree- 
ment of two or more persons, to do or forbear some 
act or thing; a contract. The covenant of the law, 
called the old covenant, is known also as the covenant 
of circumcision, on account of the prominence given to 
that right (which had been given four centuries before 
the law was added) in qualifying for citizenship in the 
commonwealth of Israel, and participation in the priv- 
ileges of the sanctuary. This covenant was made with 
Abraham and his fleshly descendants. Gen. 12:1, ff. 

The covenant of redemption, called the covenant 
of grace, the new covenant, was made with Christ 
before time began, and was confirmed unto Abraham 
by promise. "Now to Abraham were the promises 
spoken, and to his seed." See Gen. 17:7, ff. "He 
saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and 
to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. 3:16. In II Tim- 



The Preparatory Stage. 35 

othy 1:9, we have this statement as to both the nature 
of this covenant, and the time when it was agreed 
upon, "who saved us and called us with a holy calling, 
not according to our works, but according to his own 
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus 
before times eternal." It is a covenant of grace, not of 
works, and was provided in Christ in times eternal. 

These covenants have each their ordinances pecu- 
liar to themselves. Our inquiry here is concerned only 
with circumcision in its relation to the privileges of par- 
ticipation in the things of the law. It stood as introduc- 
tory to all privileges conferred by the law. Circumcision 
of the heart — its antitype — stands in the same relation 
to the privileges conferred by the gospel. It alone 
qualifies for participation in the services of the gospel. 
That the heart is to be circumcised is taught both in 
the Old and New Testaments. This heart circumcision 
qualified those under the law for federation with Abra- 
ham in the promises, while that in the flesh extended 
only to the privileges of the law. 

"Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, 
and be no more stiff-necked." Deut. 10:16. "And 
the Lord thy Grod will circumcise thine heart, and the 
heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all 
thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest 
live." Deut. 30:6. 

In Romans 2:29, the apostle brings out the con- 
trast between the two in strong terms, saying: "For he 
is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; neither is that cir- 
cumcision, which is outward, in the flesh; but he is a 



36 John the Baptist's Ministry. 

Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of 
the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise 
is not of men, but of God." What is this inner cir- 
cumcision of the heart, but regeneration? Manifestly 
nothing more, nothing less. That of the flesh is the 
type, qualifying for citizenship in the commonwealth 
of Israel and federation in the services of the law; that 
of the heart, regeneration is the antitype, qualifying 
for citizenship with God and federation in the services 
of the gospel. This fact is beautifully brought out in 
the following passage: "In whom ye were circumcised 
with a circumcision not made with hands, in the put- 
ting oft' the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of 
Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, 
wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in 
the working of God, who raised him from the dead." 
Col. 2:11, 12. 

The efforts of pedobaptists to begin the church 
in the call of Abraham, that they may foster infant 
baptism and church membership on the church, must 
fall short of success, for the obvious reason that God's 
word makes regeneration, circumcision of the heart, 
the antitype of that of the flesh. Hence, the identity 
can not be made out for the following reasons as seen: 

First. Christ abolished the law, and hence abol- 
ished the institutions of the law. 

Second. It was done that he might create in him- 
self of the twain one new man, one new church, so 
making peace. The law killed, by making sin appear 
to be sin, by giving knowledge of sin. It had a time 
limit, — till the seed should come. 



The Preparatory Stage. 37 

Third. The coming of Christ, the seed, was the 
ushering in of the new covenant, with new institutions, 
and new conditions of federation therein. 

Fourth. In the new covenant, regeneration — cir- 
cumcision of the heart and not infant baptism — takes 
the place of circumcision in the flesh under the old cov- 
enant. All efforts to prove an ante-Christian history 
of the church must necessarily fail, because not possi- 
ble to identify the ordinances of the law and the gos- 
pel. Each is distinct from the other, having each their 
distinct institutions and history. We turn to the New 
Testament and here we are confronted with two theo- 
ries : 

First. That the church was constituted during 
the personal ministry of Christ, and 

Second. That the church was constituted by the 
apostles on the first Pentecost following the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus. This view will be noticed at the close of 
this chapter, when we come to notice the objections 
brought against the first, which we believe to be the 
scriptural view. Addressing ourselves to this proposi- 
tion, let us examine into the proofs. These readily fall 
into two divisions : 

First. The preparatory stage, embracing John's 
ministry, and 

Second. The stage of actual construction, embrac- 
ing the ministry of Jesus. 

I. The preparatory stage. 

In the prophecies of the Old Testament, the in- 
troduction of a new economy by the Son of God in 



38 John the Baptist's Ministry. 

person, with the preparatory steps thereto, is amply 
provided for. Jacob's prophecy concerning his twelve 
sons, as recorded in Genesis 49, says of Judah, "the 
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the staff from 
between his feet, till he come to Shiloh, having the 
obedience of the people." It is worth while to remark, 
that this prediction of the tribe of Judah was literally 
fulfilled throughout the entire Hebrew history, down 
to Herod the Great, the Idumean, who was reigning 
when the Messiah came. The point raised is this: 
When he should come, his coming would be attended 
by the obedience of the people. He would come in 
the character of a ruler, vested with authority to change 
laws and customs. 

To this agrees the statement of Moses. "The 
Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from 
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto 
him ye shall hearken. ' ' Deut. 18:15. From these and 
similar passages, the Hebrew mind caught the thought 
that the Messiah would come with regal authority, and 
that, in the rightful exercise of the same vested in him 
as ruler and prophet, he would change laws and cus- 
toms long established. In fact, this developes early in 
the ministry of the Baptist. 

He came introducing new laws and customs, with 
apparent Messianic authority, and the Jews sought at 
once to know if he were the promised Messiah. "And 
this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto 
him from Jerusalem priests and Levites, to ask him, 
who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; and 



The Preparatory Stage. 39 

he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked 
him, what then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am 
not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. 
They said therefore unto him, who art thou? that we 
may give an answer unto them that sent us. What 
sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the 
Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. And they that had 
been sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, 
and said unto him, why baptizest thou, if thou be not 
the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet." John 
1:19, fL That this passage teaches that the Jewish 
mind believed the Messiah would come changing laws 
and customs, is obvious from the order of the questions 
propounded by this commission sent out by the Phari- 
sees. 

First. "Who art thou? I am not the Christ." 
The denial of Christhood would very naturally lead to 
further inquiry. 

Second. "Art thou Elijah? I am not." The 
Jews had long expected that Elijah would return in 
person, with great power and authority. The denial 
would lead to still further inquiry. 

Third. "Art thou the prophet? No." They had 
passed through the long night of four centuries without 
the voice of a living prophet, and doubtless thought the 
time for the fulfillment of the prediction of Moses had 
come. There is no evidence that the Hebrew mind 
found a Messianic meaning in the prediction, but to the 
contrary, they were contented in believing it referred 



40 John the Baptist's Ministry. 

to a human prophet, endowed with extraordinary 
power. Having thus exhausted the catalogue of per- 
sons that made up the Jews' expectation, they asked 
once again in a tone of disappointment: 

Fourth. "Who art thou? that we may give an 
answer to them that sent us. What say est thou of 
thyself? T am the voice of one ciyiug in the wilder- 
ness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah 
the prophet. " Eeducing himself thus, from the high 
rank of the trio that made up the expectation of the 
Jewish mind, to that of the "preparatory voice" of 
Isaiah 40:3, the very next step in the interview would 
be to question his authority for his strange conduct 
in baptizing. 

Fifth. "Why then baptizest thou, if thou be not 
the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? I bap- 
tize in water; in the midst of you standeth one whom 
ye know not, even he that cometh after me, the latchet 
of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose." This ques- 
tion furnishes the key to the Hebrew mind. It proves 
that they believed that the Messiah would come intro- 
ducing new laws, and that baptism was regarded in 
that light. Futhermore, it furnishes the grounds for 
the Baptist to proclaim the nature of his mission, 
and the connection of his ministry with that of the 
Messiah who should come after him, and whom he 
would introduce to Israel in his Messianic character. 

"Behold" said he, "the Lamb of Grod, which 
taketh away the sin of the world." 

In this preparatory work of the Baptist, three 
things are noticeable: 



The Preparatory Stage. 41 

First. He came preaching repentance. "And in 
those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the 
wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye; for the king- 
dom of heaven" the Messianic reign "is at hand." 
Matt. 3:1,2. 

Here, again, the Baptist connects his mission with 
that of the Messiah, holding his in subordination to, 
and preparatory unto that of the Messiah. Prominence 
is given to repentance as essential to this preparation. 
That he means the same by repentance that is meant 
by it throughout the New Testament, is clear from his 
demand of the Pharisees, "Bring forth therefore fruit 
worthy of repentance." Matt. 3:8, and Luke 3:8. 

It was more than the Jewish conception derived 
from the frequent use of the expression, "turn ye," in 
the Hebrew scriptures. It struck deeper into the very 
heart of the inner nature, and rose higher in outward 
expressions of childlike trust in Grod for deliverance 
from sin. 

This was repentance as preached by the Baptist in 
making ready a people prepared for the Lord. It is 
worthy of remark, that stress was laid on this as neces- 
sary to participation in the Messianic reign which was 
at|hand. 

It was not, however, a condition to participation 
in the services of the law, nor to membership in the 
Old Testament ecclesia. 

Second. John the Baptist came preaching faith 
in Christ, as an all sufficient Savior. In his last 
testimony concerning Jesus, we have this clear 



42 yoh?i the Baptists Ministry. 

statement of the doctrine and office of faith, "He 
that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but 
he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:36. 

This statement of the doctrine, and the necessity 
of evangelical faith, is in perfect accord with the teach- 
ings of Christ and the apostles, as developed in the 
New Testament. It is to be remarked, that such faith 
was not essential to participation in the services of the 
law, nor to membership in the Jewish ecclesia. 

That John's disciples were quite well instructed in 
the high office and ministry of Christ, is apparent. 
John was careful on all occasions to give exaltation to 
Christ, and subordination to himself. "Ye yourselves 
bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but, 
that I am sent before him." John 3:28. "The 
latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose." 
John 1:27. "He must increase, but I must decrease." 
John 3:30. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world." John 1:29. As you read 
these passages of Johannic exaltation of the Messiah, 
you are reminded of the Pauline exaltation of the 
Christ. 

That this teaching had been grasped by the disci- 
ples of John is quite evident from the readiness with 
which his disciples left him to follow Christ. 

"Again on the morrow John was standing, and 
two of his disciples ; and he looked upon Jesus as he 
walked, and said, Behold the Lamb of God! And the 
two disciples heard him speak, and they followed 



The Preparatory Stage. 43 

Jesus." John 1:35-37. It is, therefore, certain, that 
the preaching of John required a faith in Christ, that 
was evangelical in character, embracing Jesus in His 
sacrificial relation to the remission of sins. 

Third. The third element in the preparatory ministry 
of the Baptist ivas baptism. No little controversy has 
been precipitated on the cause of Christianity by those 
who deny the evangelical character of John's bap- 
tism. This has come from two sources: 

First. From those who make too much of bap- 
tism, as the nineteenth century reformers. Holding, as 
they do, that baptism is a condition unto the remission 
of past sins, and that the law of pardon — baptism — was 
first preached on the Pentecost following our Lord's 
resurrection, they are forced to deny the evangelical 
character of John's baptism. It may be suggested, 
that it is unfortunate to hold a position that seeks sup- 
port at the cost of an integral part of the gospel, as we 
will see to be the case in this instance. 

Second. But this denial comes, also, from those 
who make too little of baptism, as the pedobaptists. 
Holding, as they do, that John's baptism was mainly 
to induct Christ into the office of high priest, and that 
baptism in water is of little consequence anyway, 
Holy Spirit baptism being all important, they deny the 
evangelical character of John's baptism. 

On this, as on almost all questions connected with 
the church and the ordinances, Baptists occupy middle 
grounds. 

The denials on both sides are supported by efforts 
to show that the design of John's baptism is different 



44 John the Baptist' 's Ministry. 

from that of the baptism on Pentecost. The whole 
question depends on the design of baptism. Baptists 
hold that there is a unity of design to the ordinance 
running through its entire history, from its introduc- 
tion by the Baptist to the close of the New Testament 
canon. 

The controversy grows out of such statements as, 
"the baptism of repentance unto the remission of 
sins" (Mark 1:4), and, "in water unto repentance," 
( Matthew 3:11). Of the latter expression , and kindred 
ones found in Mark and Luke, Dr. J. A. Broadus has 
this to say in concluding quite a lengthy treatment of 
the expression "unto repentance." 

"We are left to determine, from the nature of the 
case and the known circumstances, what precise rela- 
tion existed between the baptism and the repentance." 
Comm. on Matt. 

Addressing ourselves to this inquiry, let us seek to 
determine from the known circumstances, as best we 
may, this relation. It is clear that John's ministry 
had a deep insight into the evangelical nature and 
office of both repentance and faith. And furthermore, 
his teaching peuetrated deeply into the nature and 
office of the ministry of Christ. He grasped Christ 
with clear insight as God's sacrificial offering for sin. 
He looked upon him as the Lamb of God taking away 
the sin of the world. It is credible to believe that 
where teaching comprehends so clearly the true char- 
acter of repentance and faith and the atonement of 
Christ, it also comprehends with equal clearness the 



The Preparato?y Stage. 45 

true nature of baptism, with which these doctrines 
stand inseparably connected throughout the New Tes- 
tament. Only in a representative way — as connected 
with the atonement — does baptism stand connected 
with the remission of sins. The baptism of John is 
stated in two ways : 

First. With respect to confession of sins. "And 
they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confess- 
ing their sins." Matthew 3:6, repeated in Mark 1:5. 

Second. With respect to repentance: "I indeed 
baptize you with water unto repentance, 77 Matthew 
3:11, Mark 1:4, and Acts 19:4. The latter class rep- 
resents the doctrine of his baptism; the former class, 
that doctrine as confessed by the obedience of his dis- 
ciples. The one is the fact, the other is the confession 
of that fact. Let us take the class of passages, "unto 
repentance," expressing the doctrine of his baptism, 
and inquire into their meaning. "I indeed baptize you 
with water unto repentance. " Matthew 3 : 11. "Unto 
repentance" in this instance can neither mean a pro- 
curing cause, nor a condition unto, for the known cir- 
cumstances forbid this meaning. Those circumstances 
are in the demand that John made of the Pharisees 
who came to his baptism. "And when he saw many 
of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, 
he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned 
you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth there- 
fore fruit worthy of repentance." Matthew 3:7, 8. 
Now it is folly to say that John, who here makes evi- 
dences of repentance a preparatory condition for bap- 



46 John the Baftisf s Ministry. 

tism, likewise makes baptism a preparatory condition 
unto repentance before he closes his exhortation to the 
Pharisees and Sadducees. This would make him give 
different designs to his baptism, or destroy his claim to 
be recognized as a credible teacher by making him con- 
tradict himself. We freely admit that the most nat- 
ural way to understand the preposition eis (with its 
case here), is, unto repentance, and that such is the 
rhetorical meaning. But, the question comes up: Is 
the rhetorical meaning at all times the true one? By 
no means. It certainly is not, when there are things 
in the context, as in John's baptism, which forbid it. 
That his baptism had a very close relation to the remis- 
sion of sins is clear, but the question is, what is the 
exact relation? Is it different from the relation sus- 
tained throughout the Acts and the epistles? We 
think not. There is a unity that belongs to baptism 
throughout the entire New Testament. 

The noun form of the word, baptisma, has refer- 
ence to the doctrine embodied in baptism, more than 
to the act itself. True, when we speak of baptism, we 
have regard to an act, but only in the sense that the 
act is the embodiment of a principle or fact. Hence, 
Christ in speaking of his death calls it a baptism, say- 
ing, "Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink! or to 
be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized 
with?" Mark 10:38. The question we raise is, What 
is the principle or fact embodied in baptism? The 
apostle gives us a clear and concise answer in Romans 
6:4. "We were buried therefore with him through 



The Preparatory Stage. 47 

baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from 
the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also 
might walk in newness of life." Death, burial, and 
resurrection are the facts declared to be embodied in 
baptism. This is exactly the meaning Christ put into 
it, in his figurative use of the term as descriptive of his 
death. Apostolic baptism embodies the death, burial, 
and resurrection of Christ as the sin bearer, and con- 
fesses our sins as remitted through his blood, and thus 
incidentally embodies our death to sin through his, 
and pledges us to walk in the new life derived from 
him. But did John's baptism embody the same 
facts? We think so. The passage in Acts 19:4 will 
give us light at this point. "John baptized with the 
baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that 
they should believe on him which should come after 
him; that is, on Jesus." 

It will be noticed that baptism is closely connected 
with the burden of John's teaching, "belief on Jesus." 
In what sense were they taught of John to believe on 
Jesus? Evidently in the sense of his sacrificial offer- 
ing for sins. "Behold," said John, "the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Here 
the offering of Christ, as the lamb prepared of God, 
sustains a relation to the remission of sins. It is a 
procurative relation. John's baptism sustained a rela- 
tion to Christ, as well as a relation to the remission of 
sins — one which involved his sacrificial offering as the 
grounds of the remission of sins. But this it could 
not do without involving his death, burial, and resur- 



48 John the Baptist's Ministry. 

rection. This, however, is precisely what it did embody, 
as may be seen by reference to Christ's submission to 
it. It was the one act through which, at the begin- 
ning of his ministry, Jesus could set forth a completed 
righteousness, such as would be accepted by his 
Father, to be brought in by his death, here embodied 
in his obedience to the form of death and life con- 
tained in baptism. "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all 
righteousness. 7 ' Matthew 3:15. Here, in this fore- 
cast of his death — which later on he compares to bap- 
tism — he begins, as the Son of man, made in the 
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin in the flesh, to 
offer his human nature on the altar of his divinity, 
by which, when it was completed on the cross, he 
would become the author of a righteousness entirely 
satisfactory to God. Thus he, as man, already bear- 
ing the sins of his people in his own body, began the 
public course of a life that should end on the cross, 
and in the act of the beginning embodied the fact of 
the ending. Now it was John's baptism that was made 
to embody this very truth. And as in the case of 
Jesus, so, also, in that of his disciples. They were 
required to repent of sins and to believe on Jesus as 
offered for the remission of sins, and thus to be bap- 
tized with reference to the remission of sins as brought 
about by his atonement for sin. We see, therefore, 
that the baptism of John stands on the same grounds 
as that of the apostles. It embodies the same facts, 
and sustains the same relation to the remission of sins. 
But in what sense can it be said that Jesus was bap- 



The Preparatory Stage. 49 

tized "unto the remission of sins?' 7 The answer is : 
That he was acting as man, and in the capacity of 
man, and for man as sinful. Though not actually a 
sinner, he was acting for sinners whose transgressions 
he was already bearing in his own body. The offering 
of his body for sin was to accomplish the remission of 
sins, both for himself and for those for whom he was 
acting, for, as the apostle says, "Him who knew no 
sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him." II Corin- 
thians 5:21. Just as appropriate, therefore, to say 
that he was "baptized unto the remission of sins," as 
to say, as does the apostle, "for the death that he 
died, he died unto sin once." Eomans 6:10. Truly 
his death was unto sin, even unto the remission of sin 
— and his baptism, which embodied his death, was 
unto the remission of sins in the same sense in which 
ours is, viz., that by his death which is set forth in 
baptism, he accomplished the remission of sins. This 
links our crucifixion to sin with that of his, "knowing 
this, that our old man is crucified with him." Romans 
6:6. As he does also our death, "but if we died with 
Christ." Romans 6:8. And also our baptism, "having 
been buried with him in baptism." Colossians, 2:12. 
The very bond itself which reproduces all these things 
as taking place in him and us alike, is baptism. "For 
if we have become united with him by the likeness of 
his death, we shall be also by the likeness of his resur- 
rection." Romans 6:5. The baptism of John stood 
for everything for which that of the apostles' stands, 



50 John the Baptist's Ministry. 

and is. therefore, entitled to recognition as Christian 
baptism. Hence, we see that the repentance, and faith, 
and baptism preached by John, are upon the same 
plane as that preached throughout theXew Testament. 

His ministry was sufficiently replete with gospel 
teaching to produce in his disciples qualifications for 
church membership, that would be recognized as evan- 
gelical by any of the so-called orthodox bodies of Chris- 
tians now extant. And we venture to say, that the 
requirements of his teaching produced in his disciples 
a Christian character far surpassing that which is 
required by many of the so-called churches of the pres- 
ent day. 

His work was preparatory, "making ready a peo- 
ple" for the coming of Jesus. This was to be the rela- 
tion of his ministry to that of Christ, "The voice of 
one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way 
of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for 
our God." Isaiah 40:3. 

But there is still another element in this prepara- 
tory work. Not only had the people to be made ready 
for Jesus, but it was also needful that Jesus should be 
introduced to them in his true character as the Son of 
G-od, the long expected Messiah. This high commis- 
sion was divinely appointed into the hands of the Bap- 
tist. "But that he should be made manifest to Israel, 
for this cause came I baptizing in water." John 1:31. 
Baptism is everywhere in the Xew Testament, a 
revealer of Christ. It makes him known in his true 
character as the sin bearer. This province was 



The Preparatory Stage. 51 

divinely vested in the baptism of John, and nowhere 
in the subsequent scriptures has it been taken away, 
or even added o. It is, till this day, when properly 
observed, simply a revealer of Christ. John, having 
accomplished his twofold mission, and seeing Jesus in 
the rightful possession of his bride, joyously closes his 
testimony in the following words : 

"Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am 
not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He 
that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend 
of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, 
rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. 
This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, 
but I must decrease." John 3:28-30. 

It is proper to close the ministry of John at the 
point at which he recognizes him for whom he was 
forerunner in the rightful possession of his own bride, 
the church. 

If the use of this relation in the scriptures means 
anything, it can not mean less than that both parties 
to the relation have actual existence at the time men- 
tioned. Hence, as both parties are here spoken of, it 
is certain that at this time both have actual existence. 



52 Christ's Ministry. 

CHAPTER II.— Continued. 

WHEN THE CHURCH WAS CONSTITUTED. 
II. Christ's Ministry— The Period of Actual Construction. 



\ \ 7"E come now to notice the gathering together of 
* * the "prepared material," by Christ, and the 
shaping of the same into the church. Christ stands forth 
in the gospels as the profoundest teacher, and the great- 
est organizer in the world's annals. Having authority, 
he spake as never man spake. In eternity, he spake, and 
worlds sprang into existence, and moved on to take 
their respective places in the universe. And when he 
came on the scene of human history, his words spoke 
life into the hearts of men, deadened by transgression, 
and moved them on as by magnetic power to take their 
respective places in the church, and join with him in 
the blessed work of perpetuating the blessings of his 
gospel to all people, and unto the end of the age. 
While the words of others have swayed the people for 
a time, losing their moving power by frequent repeti- 
tion, the words of Christ grow richer and sweeter in 
sermon and song, moving, with increasing power, 
more people as the ages roll. 

And while the institutions of men have sprung up 
demanding the attention of men for a season, and 
thence passing on to decay, the church of Christ has 



The Period of Actual Construction. 53 

held on her way with constantly increasing numbers 
and power. Truly, he who is the foundation of these 
movements is the "prophet' 7 of whom Moses wrote, to 
whom, when he came, the people should hearken. He 
is none other than the "Shiloh" of Jacob's prophecy, 
who should come having the obedience of the people. 
The reign which he was to inaugurate, was "the stone" 
of Daniel's prophecy, "cut out without hands," rolling 
on through the church to world-wide and age-long 
empire. 

This is he whom Isaiah saw coming "from Edom, 
with dyed garments from Bozrah, glorious in apparel, 
and marching in the greatness of his strength." Isa. 
63:1. And how coming? Coming as born and given 
unto us, as bearing the government on his own shoul- 
ders, and being named Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty 
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, whose gov- 
ernment should have an endless increase. Isa. 9:6, f. 
This is he, up to whom the prophecies concerning the 
Johannic ministry led, and in whom they culminated, 
to whom John pointed with completed joy, saying: 
"He must increase, but I must decrease." And it is 
he, to whom, when the ministry of John reached its 
fitting climax in the baptism of Jesus, the Trinity, in 
good pleasure witnessed a transfer of authority upon 
him, on account of a completed righteousness brought 
in by his death, now set forth in his baptism. In the 
prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Jesus, he 
is set forth in his relations to his work, in the three- 
fold character of the same. As king or ruler, as 



54 Christ's Ministry. 

prophet or teacher, as high priest offering himself 
for the sins of his people. 

In the New Testament he comes, witnessed by the 
Father and the Holy Spirit, claiming these prerogatives 
for himself. U I am he of whom Moses and the proph- 
ets wrote. " He comes therefore qualified, and divinely 
approved to be head over all things to the church, which 
is his body. Not many days following his baptism, he 
began the work of collecting the material for his church. 
The first to associate themselves with Jesus were of 
John's disciples. This association was voluntary, 
drawn by the magnetic power of him on whom they 
had believed. 

Coming, somehow, in a voluntary way to the mag- 
net who, "if he be lifted up, would draw all men unto , 
him," they had already, in the preaching of John, 
seen him lifted up, and now he was drawing them unto 
himself to be associated with him in his life work. 

"Again, on the morrow, John was standing, and 
two of his disciples, and he looked upon Jesus as he 
walked, and saith, behold the Lamb of God." John 
1:35, f. Now, his disciples had been taught to believe 
on Jesus as a sacrificial offering for sin, and he, the ob- 
ject of their faith, was now pointed;out to them by their 
teacher, who had prepared them for his coming. It was 
enough ; association with him must be effected at once. 

"And the two disciples heard him speak, and 
they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and beheld 
them following, and saith unto them, what seek ye? 
And they said unto him, Eabbi (which is to 



The Period of Actual Construction. 55 

say, being interpreted, Master), where abidest thou? 
He saith unto them, come, and ye shall see. They 
came, therefore, and saw where he abode, and they 
abode with him that day." John 1:37-39. And who 
were these disciples of John? One of them "was An- 
drew, Simon Peter's brother," who at once sought 
Simon, and announced to him, " we have found the Mes- 
siah (which is, being interpreted, Christ). He brought 
him unto Jesus." John 1:41, f. Here, the Messianic 
reign of Christ is recognized by Andrew. When first 
he came to Jesus, he recognized him as teacher; now, 
reigning in his office as the anointed of God. 

And Christ here recognized Simon as the son of 
John (Joanes, and in Matthew 16-17, Jonah) in the 
character ever after ascribed to him, and gave him the 
name of Cephas-Peter, by which he is ever after 
known. "On the morrow he was minded to go forth 
into Galilee, and he findeth Philip, and Jesus saith un- 
to him, follow me." John 1:43. These three were 
from the same city, Bethsaida. 

"Philip findeth Nathan ael, and saith unto him, 
we have found him of whom Moses in the law, and 
the prophets, did write." John 1: 45. These and doubt- 
less many others of John's disciples were gathered 
about Jesus before his first departure for Galilee follow- 
ing his baptism. Soon after his arrival in Galilee there 
was a marriage in Cana, "and the mother of Jesus was 
there, and Jesus also was bidden, and his disciples, to 
the marriage." John 2:1, 2. Now these events are 
following in quick succession, and show that the com- 



53 Christ's Ministry. 

pany of disciples is fast growing. John is our only 
historian covering this period of almost a year of our 
Lord's life, and yet all that he says of this period is put 
into less than three chapters. Fragmentary, there- 
fore, as it must be, it is yet full enough to show that 
Jesus honored the preparatory work of John by 
gathering about himself many of the disciples of 
John. But may we not from other passages, gather 
the names of still others from John's disciples, 
that were gathered about Jesus in the very begin- 
ning of his ministry? We think so, and that, too, 
without the least shadow of a doubt. The apostles 
give their testimony in no uncertain way, to having 
been with Jesus from the baptism of John. And in 
giving that testimony, they establish two other facts, 
viz. : (a) That John's baptism is a part of the gospel, 
and (&) that they had been baptized by him. 

When the question arose about filling the apostle- 
ship made vacant by the tragic ending of Judas, 
Peter stated the outward qualifications of his successor 
thus: "Of the men therefore which have companied 
with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and 
went out among us, beginning from the baptism of 
John, unto the day that he was received up from us, of 
these must one become a witness with us of his resur- 
rection." Actsl: 21, f. The eleven, as represented 
by Peter, here give testimony to the fact that they had 
been with Christ from the baptism of John, connect- 
ing the same with the things to which they were to 
give testimony, and thereby incidentally showing that 



The Period of Actual Construction. 57 

they had been John's disciples, and had been baptized 
by him. 

The synoptic gospels do not pick up the thread of 
our Lord's life until some time following the passover 
feast, about one year subsequent to the baptism of 
Jesus, but, as stated, John gives us a glimpse into this 
period of Christ's life, showing us that he is busily en- 
gaged in teaching and collecting disciples. 

After his visit to Galilee, Cana, and Capernaum, 
he returns at the passover, expels the traders from the 
temple, is visited by Nicodemus, and remains in Judea, 
making and baptizing disciples. 

"After these things came Jesus and his disciples 
into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with 
them, and baptized." John 3: 22. This, and verses 
1 and 2 of the fourth chapter, are parts of the same 
incident, furnishing the grounds of John's last testi- 
mony to Jesus, which is thrown in between. 

In that testimony John takes occasion to represent 
Christ as already in possession of his bride, the church, 
saying: "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, 
but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and 
heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bride- 
groom's voice; this my joy is therefore fulfilled. He 
must increase, but I must decrease." John 3: 29, 30. 

At this point (John 4:3) the other gospels join in 
the thread of our Lord's life, leaving John, however, 
to record the interview with the Samaritan woman. 

That thread passes hurriedly on to the call of Simon 
and Andrew, and James and John (Matt. 4: 18-22, 



58 . Christ's Ministry. 

and Mark 1: 16-20), to the work of the ministry. They 
had previously been called to discipleship ; they are now 
called to the work of teaching, but not yet to apostle- 
ship. The narrative passes rapidly on to the time of 
giving pronounced emphasis and special organic form 
to his work. This is reached in the sermon on the 
mount (Matt. 5: 1 to 7: 29, and Luke 6: 12-49). In 
the neighborhood of fifteen months had been spent in 
collecting about himself this company of disciples, and 
in instructing them in the nature and doctrines of his 
reign. The collection of disciples already constituted 
the church, but, without formal and declared separa- 
tion from the law, with its institutions, they would be 
looked upon both by themselves and others as only 
another sect added to those already existing among the 
Jews under the law. They had been convoked by the 
call of the gospel through regeneration, to a voluntary as- 
sociation in Christ under the gospel, but there remained 
yet to be made known unto them the final ends for which 
they had been thus associated together. Some of their 
number had been called as teachers, but the duty and 
ends involved in teaching might easily pass away with 
them. Historical permanency must be provided, both 
for the gospel and for the church, hence official charac- 
ter must be given to the church as the custodian of the 
gospel of the Son of God. 

How much was involved in this awful moment, 
may be learned by the following outline of the sermon 
delivered on the occasion. It is the inaugural address 
delivered by our Lord on the formal recognition of the 



The Period of Acttial Construction. 59 

church, setting forth the temper of soul necessary, the 
relation sustained to the world and to the law, the re- 
sources of the church, with the end in view. 

1. It was preceded by an all night prayer. "And 
it came to pass in these days, that he went out into a 
mountain to pray ; and he continued all night in prayer 
to God." Luke 6: 12. 

Jesus knew full well, that to give organic form to 
his work would arouse the hostility of the Jews, and 
hasten the end upon himself, but it was to be so, and 
he is anxious to prepare his people for it, and to fortify 
his church against it, hence : 

2. It was needful that he prepare men of his own 
choice for the apostleship, that through them the gos- 
pel might attain historical permanency. Those chosen 
to this high function had already been called to disci- 
pleship, and four of them — perhaps all — to the ministry, 
but they are now chosen to a still greater work than 
that which is involved in either of the former relations. 
"And when it was day, he called his disciples; and he 
chose from them twelve, whom also he named apos- 
tles. ' 7 Luke 6:13. Both the fact of the ordination of the 
twelve to the apostleship, with the ends in view, is fur- 
ther brought out in John 15 : 16: "Ye have not chosen 
me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye 
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit 
should remain. 7 ' Comp. 6: 70 and 13: 18. It is 
clear that principle, among the "fruit that should re- 
main," was the historical establishment and perma- 
nency of the gospel. 



60 Christ's Mi?iistry. 

That the twelve were divinely set in the church in 
the official character of apostles, is expressly stated by 
Paul, "and G-od hath set some in the church, first 
apostles." I Cor. 12: 28. 

As to the exact time when they were set in the 
church as apostles, we have the statement of Luke, 
showing that it was in connection with the sermon on 
the mount. "And when it was day, he called his dis- 
ciples ; and he chose from them twelve, whom also he 
named apostles.' 7 Luke 6: 13. This passage, com- 
pared with those just cited, shows that the choice and 
naming was also accompanied by the ordaining and 
setting in the church. 

It is, therefore, certain, that at this time the twelve 
apostles were officially recognized by Jesus as members 
of his church. 

3. We come now to notice more particularly the 
inaugural address, as showing this to be the occasion 
upon which the church was officially recognized by 
Jesus. A careful study of the four gospels will show 
this to be the first and only formal discourse delivered 
by Jesus to his apostles, and disciples assembled as one 
body. It is true, he delivered other discourses, but 
they are neither formal, nor do they deal as does this 
with the general principles of his work, as contrasted 
with the law and its operations. 

In our times we would call this the sermon 
preached on the occasion of recognizing a church or 
ordaining officers in the church. 



The Period of Actual Construction. 61 

It was the formal separation of his work from that 
of the law, and a declaration of the principles and pol- 
icies to be pursued in the prosecution of that work: 

First. As to the temper of soul or inner character 
of those who should be participants in the work, and 
recipients of the blessings provided for in the same. 
This, he sets forth in the beatitudes which form the 
exordium to the discourse. Indeed, they are an exoter- 
icism. It is worth while to study these for a moment, 
that we may see how they lead up in a logical way to 
the great body of the discourse. They begin at the 
foundation, the condition of spiritual poverty existing 
in human hearts apart from God. "Blessed are the 
poor in spirit. " Intelligent consciousness of spiritual 
poverty; the presence, guilt, and dominion of sin — log- 
ically an d experimentally — lead to the second : "Blessed 
are those that mourn. ' ' This is not that kind of mourn- 
ing that comes of bereavement, and is so often consoled 
by this passage, but that which comes of a conscious- 
ness of sin and guilt before God. Not everyone who is 
made to mourn because of bereavement is in a condi- 
tion to receive comfort from the providential dealings 
of God, but all who mourn on account of personal trans- 
gressions, "shall be comforted." In the travail of the 
soul toward an offended God, this leads to the third: 
"Blessed are the meek." When the heart is filled with 
a deep consciousness of its guilt before God, how in 
humility does it pant for the righteousness of God? 
"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness." And now, seeing the need of an acceptable 



62 Christ's Ministry. 

righteousness, and conscious of its own inability to 
bring in such of itself, it realizes that itself is an object 
of mercy. This begets in the soul a merciful temper, 
and brings the heart to the point at which it can expect 
mercy. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall ob- 
tain mercy.' 7 And in the very next step, the thing for 
which the heart is hungering and thirsting, the mercy 
desired, becomes realized. "Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God." When once the heart is 
made pure — cleansed from the guilt and pollution of 
sin, so that God is enjoyed; for such the phrase "shall 
see God," means — the very next step forward, in the 
experiences of the soul, is to have universal peace reign 
on earth. Such a one becomes a peacemaker. "Blessed 
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons 
of God." Not until the heart has been made pure 
through regeneration, and the spirit of Christ the 
Prince of Peace, thereby acquired, are men entitled to 
recognition as sons of God. This identity with God, 
and with Christ, brings about relations; relations that 
are opposed to those sustained while in an unregen- 
erate state, and that will, in the future, as in the past, 
be met with violent persecution, hence: "Blessed 
are they that have been persecuted for right- 
eousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven." And just so, "Blessed are ye when men 
shall reproach you, and persecute you. and say 
all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 
Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your re- 
ward in heaven ; for so persecuted they the prophets 



The Period of Actual Construction. 63 

which were before you." My point is, that these beat- 
itudes do not express different conditions of heart, 
each standing alone and without logical and experi- 
mental connection, one with the others; but that they 
are to be taken as a whole, representing the inner stages 
through which the soul passes from a state of death 
in sin, to sonship with God and spiritual identity 
with Christ in the work he is now giving organic form 
and functions, which identity established relations that 
would subject to persecution in the present and future , 
as had been the case with the prophets in the past. 
Having thus laid down in this exordium, the great car- 
dinal principle of inner life involved in his mission to 
men, he passes to the body of the discourse, in which 
he develops the outward relations in organic form, as- 
sumed by this inner principle of life. It is a principle 
of life to take on form, and each several kind of life 
takes on that form best suited to give proper expression 
to the life inhabiting the special form. 

Another principle of life is, that each kind of life 
seeks to associate itself with its like. 

"Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have 
lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is 
thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and 
trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the 
world. A city set on a hill can not be hid. Neither do 
men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the 
stand, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. " 
This is a passage of relations pure and simple, the rela- 
tions sustained by the church to God, and to the world. 



64 Christ's Ministry. 

And from this time forward to the close of the New 
Testament canon, these relations are emphasized with 
great clearness and vigor. The argument is this: 
The disciples having passed — by the process described 
in the previous verses — to a saved and illumined condi- 
tion of soul, were noiv to be made the human media 
through ivhich such saving and illumining power should 
be transmitted to the world. It is as if Jesus were to say 
unto them : I have saved you and thereby prepared 
you to become the media through which the world is to 
be brought to me for the like salvation. But suppose 
I should suffer the salt to lose its savour, by neglect- 
ing to bind you together in one body — a thing you 
would easily do without organization — by what process 
could you be made efficient unto these ends? Mani- 
festly none. You would be good for nothing while 
standing alone, and would be rejected and trodden un- 
der foot of men. This is the relation that the apostle 
takes up later and declares to exist between Christ and 
the church, and the church and the world, saying: 
4 'But thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in 
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us 
the savour of his knowledge in every place. For we are 
a sweet savour of Christ unto God" — a perpetual sacri- 
fice of Christ unto God — "in them that are saved, and 
in them that are perishing; to the one a savour of death 
unto death" — that is, by their rejection of the gospel 
as preached by us, they become plucked up, twice dead 
— "to the other, a savour from life unto life' 7 — that is, 
those made alive through the gospel, are by it made to 



The Period of Actual Construction. 65 

go from faith to faith, and from glory to glory. II Cor. 
2: 14-16. Nor does this conflict with the statements 
concerning Jesus, in which he is set forth as the life of 
men and the light of the world. The people of God 
are made to partake of the divine nature, and thereby 
become "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.' 7 So 
intimate is this relation, that it is said, "when he 
(Christ) who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also 
appear with him in glory." His people sustain a rela- 
tion to him and the world, similar to that sustained 
by the electric wire to the power house and the com- 
munity in darkness. The electricity is turned on, and 
light flashes through the community, dispelling dark- 
ness. Just so, Grod turns the light and life of Jesus on 
his people, and through them communicates the same 
to those in the darkness of sin. 

Our Savior further illustrates this twofold rela- 
tion of the church, by the use of two other figures, 
viz., the city set on a hill, and the lighted lamp. 
Jesus, himself, had previously been declared to be the 
light of the world (John 1:4, 5), but now he declares 
that his church is the light of the world. 

It is as if he were to say to them, you were once 
darkness, but have now, through the process just de- 
scribed, become light; you are to shine forth that 
light to others. But suppose it were possible for me to 
leave you scattered; it would be as a man that had 
lighted a lamp and hidden it away under a bushel. 
No ; that is not what I will do. I will give you promi- 
nence, as yonder city on the hill, and as the lamp on 



QQ Christ's Ministry. 

the stand, by giving you organic form and functions. 
And as he bands them together into one body sustain- 
ing these relations, he enforces the duty of maintaining 
the same. "Even so let your light shine before men, 
that they may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven. 7 ' Matt. 5:16. 

Inasmuch as I now appoint you my church, and 
thereby make you the human media of the light that is 
in me, of which ye have received, and custodian of 
my gospel, shine forth that light by "holding forth 
the word of life," that others may be led to the light, 
and thereby glorify your Father which is in heaven. 
This same relation, existing between the church and 
the world, is recognized and enforced throughout the 
epistles. 

Very much like the statement of our Savior, is that 
of Paul in Philippians 2:14-16: "Do all things without 
murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blame- 
less and harmless, children of God, without blemish in 
the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among 
whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth 
the word of life." Here the same relation is empha- 
sized as existing between the church and God, and the 
church and the world. That is, the church is the 
human media through which the life of God and the 
light of the gospel is to shine out to the world. 

The establishment of these relations — ever after 
recognized as existing only in connection with the 
church — argues the existence of the church at the 
time and in connection with the inauguration of the 



The Period of Actual Constrtiction. 67 

principles or relations. Relations can not exist in the 
absence of either of the parties to the relations. The 
relation of husband and wife can not exist in the ab- 
sence of one of the parties. 

When a president of the United States is inaugu- 
rated into office, he usually delivers an address, in 
which he may briefly outline the principles of the party 
to which he belongs, and the success of those principles 
as crystallized in his choice, and then passes to a brief 
outline of the policy to be pursued by the administra- 
tion upon which he is formally entering, in carrying 
out those principles. Just so, Christ, in formally recog- 
nizing his church, briefly outlines the great underly- 
ing principle essential to formal federation in it, and 
then inaugurates the relations to be sustained by the 
church . 

Second. And, in the second place, he proceeds to 
outline the policy to be pursued in carrying out those 
relations. He is giving his work organic form, and 
is basing it on principles widely different from the 
constitutional principles of Mosaism. The logical con- 
clusion of his disciples would be, he is repudiating 
the law. Certainly he means to destroy the law. This 
impression, therefore, he seeks at once to correct. 
"Think not that I came to destroy the law or the proph- 
ets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill." This is 
the opening statement of the policy to be pursued, and, 
at the same time, the needed correction of the false 
conception of that policy on the part of his newly 
constituted church. 



68 Christ's Ministry. 

He does not now enter into the method of how he 
is going to fulfill the law and the prophets, but simply 
into the fact. The question of method will be made 
known to them later, when he comes to tell them plain- 
ly of the decease which he must accomplish at Jeru- 
salem. Nor is it pertinent to our inquiry at this time 
to enter at length into that question. Only let us remark 
that the law exacted a perfected righteousness, both 
in its prescriptive and penal tenures, and this is what 
Christ purposed to bring in by perfectly obeying in 
his own person its prescriptive tenure, and perfectly 
satisfying its penal demands by his death, thus bring- 
ing in a righteousness acceptable to God without law. 

That man, apart from divinity, is unable to do this, 
he demonstrates to them, thus: "Except your right- 
eousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and 
Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." Let it not be forgotten that it is the 
righteousness of the ten commandments of which he 
is speaking, the very first element of which is love to 
God with the whole nature. The Hebrews had sought 
that righteousness by the works of the law — the cere- 
monial law flowing out of the commandments — and not 
by the hearing of faith. They had, as a mass, failed 
to attain to the righteousness of faith. Jesus now 
takes up some examples of the law, broken and bleed- 
ing under the feet of the Jews, and places upon 
them a new meaning, one far more exalted than had 
ever entered the Jewish mind. The first is based on 
the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder." 



The Period of Actual Construction. 69 

He teaches them that the policy of his reign is to raise 
the claim of the law to that plane, that it shall not only 
embrace the one actually guilty of murder, but also, 
that one who has a murderous desire in his heart. 
The next example is based on the seventh command- 
ment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." This he 
also elevates to the same plane, making that one with 
the lustful desire guilty of a breach of law, equally 
with the one actually guilty of adultery. 

The next example is based on the third: "Thou 
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." 
His policy shall be to bring this law up to the plane, 
"Yea, yea; nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than this 
is sin." 

The last example is based on the command, "Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," which he exalts 
to the plane, "love your enemies, and pray for them 
that persecute you." Thus, it was his policy to give 
to the law its proper interpretation, and to personally 
fulfill its demands as thus interpreted, and finally, by 
his death, satisfy its penal demands, becoming, thereby, 
' 'the end of the law for righteousness to every one that 
believeth." Eom. 10:4. Having thus stated his 
policy, and that of the church, for through him the 
church is to bring in an accepted righteousness, with 
respect to the law, he proceeds to outline the policy of 
the church with respect to the worship of God. With 
the Jews, the worship of God had sunk to the low 
plane of doing service to be seen of men, but the 
church was to "take heed that she do not her service 



70 Christ's Ministry. 

before men, to be seen of therm" He mentions some 
elements of this service, and contrasts the spirit in 
which it is to be rendered under the gospel, with that 
in which it had been rendered under the law. 

The Jews, when doing alms, sounded a trumpet 
before them, that they might be seen of men, but the 
church was not to let her left hand know what her 
right hand did. The Jews, when praying, stood in the 
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they 
might be seen of men, but his disciples, when praying, 
were to enter into their inner chambers and shut the 
door. The Jews, when fasting, had been of sad faces, 
disfiguring their countenances, that they might be seen 
of men ; but his disciples, when fasting, should anoint 
their heads and wash their faces, that they might not 
be seen of men to fast, but of God. He now enforces 
what he has just said. They are to lay up treasures 
in heaven. This can not be done by serving two mas- 
ters. They are not to be anxious for their lives, and 
thereby become entangled in the things of this world. 
They are under the sovereign care of their Father 
which is in heaven. He feeds the birds, and develops 
the stature of man, and clothes the lilies with beauty, 
and it is he who knows their needs and will certainly 
supply them. Seeking his kingdom and his righteous- 
ness, they are to lay hold on him in his providential 
character, with that faith which surmounts all difficul- 
ties and trusts the guiding hand of God in all things. 
He forbids their judging others, and yet commands 
them to know men by their fruits. 



The Period of Actual Construction. 71 

And if, as anticipating that the disciples would 
ask him: Lord, who is sufficient unto these things? 
he teaches them how this elevated policy is to be cai*- 
ried out by them. "Ask, and it shall be given you; 
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you; for every one that asketh, receiveth, and he 
that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall 
be opened. " He comes now to the peroration in which 
he applies that which he has done and said. "Every 
one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and 
doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which 
built his house upon the rock; and the rains descended, 
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat 
upon that house ; and it fell not ; for it was founded 
upon the rock. And every one that heareth these 
words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened 
unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand ; 
and the rains descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew, and smote upon that house ; and it fell ; 
and great was the fall thereof." Our inquiry here 
need not extend farther than to the two builders. Who 
were they? 

With the sermon of Jesus before us, we think it 
easy to determine the answer. 

He, himself, is the wise builder, and the foolish 
builder is the typical Jew of his time. The one who 
does the sayings just uttered by Jesus, shall be com- 
pared to the wise builder. He is not the wise builder, 
but simply compared to him. In respect to building, 
he builds as does the wise builder. Jesus had gone 



72 Christ 's Ministry. 

down to the solid rock of the law — an acceptable right- 
eousness brought in by himself — and had built his 
church of such as through faith in him had become 
heirs with him in such righteousness. This enabled 
them to bring in a righteousness which exceeded that 
of the scribes and Pharisees, thereby qualifying them 
to enter into the kingdom of heaven and become con- 
federated with Christ in the church, and in the policy 
set before the church. 

It is as though Jesus said to them: I, as a wise 
builder, have established my church on the solid rock 
Christ, whose righteousness completely satisfies the 
claim of the law which I came to fulfill, and now, by 
hearing and doing my sayings, you shall be like me 
in this respect, and you will thereby build wisely also. 
And so building, you will maintain the relations I have 
inaugurated, and perpetuate my church against all the 
gathered forces that shall come against it. So, build 
on me and not on the law, and your work shall stand. 
But if you turn again to the superficial methods of the 
scribes and Pharisees, and build upon the foundation 
of the forms of the law and the traditions of the elders, 
your work, like theirs, shall fail when tried by the law 
under which presumably it is accomplished. Thus he 
applies what had been done and said that day. As 
before suggested, Jesus does not deal in methods here. 
He lays down the principles leading to federation in 
the church, the relations assumed by that principle in 
taking on organic life, the policy to be pursued by the 
organic life, and applies the same, and here the work 



The Period of Actual Construction. 73 

of the public recognition of the church ends. The 
question of methods he will develop in subsequent 
teachings, by example, by command, and by parable. 

Questions of internal policy will arise later on, as 
Jthe matter of dealing with an offending member; and 
as they do, Jesus will give instructions concerning the 
same. We must regard this as the occasion of the 
formal recognition of the church by Jesus. Following 
our Lord's resurrection, and in accordance with an 
appointment made with his disciples before his cruci- 
fixion, we will find him once again on this mount, but 
this time for a different purpose. It will be the occa- 
sion of formally and officially announcing to the church 
her holy mission to the world of mankind. It is worth 
our while to notice the care with which Jesus arranges 
for this last meeting with his church. The night of 
betrayal, with all its gloom, and horror, and anxiety, 
and suffering, has come upon him. He announces the 
fact to his disciples, and appoints them to meet him in 
Galilee after he is alive from the dead. "But after I 
am arisen again, I will go before you into Galilee." 
Matt. 26:32; and in Mark 14:28, "Howbeit, after I am 
raised up, I will go before you into Galilee." What 
was the purpose of this appointment? 

The record of its fulfillment is the most fitting 
answer. It was a time of great trial for the bride of 
Jesus, and the tenderness of his solicitude went out for 
her. And, too, he had entered into formal relations 
with her on this sacred spot, and it was fitting in him 
to mantle her with the robe of her high calling on the 



74 Christ's Ministry. 

same spot where he had entered into formal bond with 
her, by which bond he became head over all things to 
her who was his body. 

Early on the morning of his resurrection, when 
the women had visited the sepulchre and found him 
raised from the dead, they were commissioned by the 
angels who kept guard over him while he tasted death 
for every man, to go, and remind his disciples of his 
previous appointment to meet them in G-alilee. 

"Go quickly and tell his disciples (not the twelve 
only, but all), he is risen from the dead; and lo, he 
goeth before you into Galilee; there ye (all of you) 
shall see him; lo, I have told you." Matt. 28:7. On 
the way to bear these tidings of joy to the bereaved 
bride, they were met by Jesus, who renewed the com- 
mission. 

They hurried on and told his disciples. Let us 
now note the different appearances of Jesus between 
the resurrection and this meeting: 

First. To Mary Magdalene. Reported by John 
and Mark. 

Second. To the other women returning from the 
sepulchre. Reported by Matthew. 

Third. To Peter. Reported by Luke and Paul. 

Fourth. To the two disciples going to Emmaus. 
Reported by Mark and Luke. 

Fifth. To the apostles, Thomas being absent. Re- 
ported by Mark, Luke, John and Paul. 

All these took place on the day he arose. 

Sixth. To the apostles, Thomas being present a 
week after. Reported by John. 



The Period of Achial Construction. 75 

All these appearances were at or near Jerusalem. 

Seventh. To seven disciples at the sea of Galilee. 
Reported by John. 

Eighth. To the apostles and above five hundred 
brethren, in a mountain in Galilee. This was the meet- 
ing appointed before his crucifixion. In I Cor. 15:6, 
Paul states the meeting thus: "Then he appeared to 
above five hundred brethren at one time," and in 
Matt. 28:16, it is said, "But the eleven disciples went 
into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had ap- 
pointed them." How joyously solemn must have been 
this meeting. The bride of the risen Lord, perfected 
in all her appointments, is here assembled to receive 
the guardianship of the gospel, and to be sent forth to 
bear its tidings to all peoples and tongues of earth. 
"And Jesus came to them, and spake unto them, say- 
ing: All authority hath been given unto me in heaven 
and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of 
all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teach- 
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." Matt. 28:17-20. 

That mystic, divine presence that brings joyous 
communion of soul with an affinity is promised to the 
end of the age. The church was not to go forth into 
a work of such vast importance, and such far reaching 
results in the gloom and sorrow of widowhood. She 
was to have the tender touch of the guiding hand of 
divinity, and was to march to the conqueror's victory 



76 C/irist's Ministry. 

in the power of his might. The solemnly joyous tread 
of the disciples down the mountain side and on to 
Jerusalem to wait for the coming divine power, was 
the beginning of the grandest march, and the most 
triumphant victory, crowned with the richest spoils of 
war that has ever been made by the marshaled hosts 
of war. No doubt but that many times during the 
centuries that have gone into history, Christ has been 
greatly pained at the conduct of his church, but he 
has never forsaken her. Having himself been tempted, 
he knows how to succor them that are tempted. Well 
did he know the internal and the external difficulties 
with which his church would be met, and accordingly 
provided for her victory over them. 

Stubborn battles with self and with the world were 
to be fought to the finish, but not in the might of 
human strength or wisdom, but in the might of divine 
power and the gentleness of divine wisdom. The faith 
of the church was to be tried, but at no time would be 
permitted to fail. Christ, as a faithful husband, would 
graciously provide for his bride all needed things for 
internal development, and all implements for aggres- 
sive external warfare on sin. Not one moment of time 
should elapse, but that the church should enjoy the 
sweetness of the divine presence, and the joy of the 
holy communion with him due to the affinity of nature 
existing between the two here, and forever united in 
the blessed work of saving the lost. What a holy mis- 
sion! What a divine exaltation is that which is here 
given to the church! 



Identity — Objections Answered. 77 

CHAPTER II.— Continued. 

WHEN THE CHURCH WAS CONSTITUTED. 

III.— Identity— Objections Answered. 

IT shall be our purpose now to identify with this 
*■ assembly all essential elements of the New Testa- 
ment church, and answer such objections as are brought 
against our position. Let us repeat the definition of 
the church previously submitted. The church is an 
assembly of persons convoked by the call of the gospel 
through regeneration, to a voluntary association in Christ 
under the gospel, and for the further purpose of observing 
the order of the gospel and preaching Christ to the world. 
The question before us is : Does the assembly on the 
mountain to which Jesus gave the commission, possess 
these different elements of the church! If so, then 
that assembly was the church. 

In establishing this identity, we will be confronted 
by the various positions that are advanced against the 
actual establishment of the church during the per- 
sonal ministry of Christ. These we shall answer in 
their proper places as we proceed with the identity. 

I. The church is an assembly of persons. That 
the five hundred brethren here assembled in accord- 
ance with a previous appointment constitute an 
assembly, will be denied by no one. Hence it is not 
needful to spend time here. 



78 The Church of Christ. 

II. This assembly or collection of persons was con- 
voked by the call of the gospel. 

At this point we come to controverted grounds, 
not that the proposition is not strictly true when taken 
in other connections, but that it is not true of this 
particular assembly at this time, since, as it is main- 
tained, the gospel was preached by Jesus only in 
prospect, and not in fact until on the first Pentecost 
following his resurrection. 

The objection is based on the following passage, 
"For where a testament is, there must of necessity be 
the death of him that made it. For a testament is of 
force when there hath been death: for doth it ever 
avail while he that made it liveth." Heb. 9:16, f. 

The argument drawn from this passage in support 
of the objection, may be stated thus: 

1. Jesus is a testator. His death, burial, and 
resurrection constitute the cardinal elements of his 
testament, will, or gospel. 

2. Not until these had become historic facts 
could his will, the gospel, be preached in fact. 

3. Therefore, prior to the resurrection of Jesus 
the gospel was only preached in prospect. 

This we believe to be a fair statement of the objec- 
tion, but if more is needed to make its strength appear, 
let it be admitted, that there must be the death of him 
that made it, and that the will is of value only in con- 
sideration of the death of the testator. With all this, 
the objection is not well taken. It grows out of the 
idea that man is a party to the will, when in fact, man 



Identity — Objections Answered. 79 

is the property consideration of the will. He is that 
which the will disposes of. Who, we may ask, are 
the parties to the will 1 ? God, in the person of Father is 
the author. God, in the person of Son, is the heir. 
And God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is the 
executor. This will, conditionally, disposes of a posses- 
sion, and provides that the heir shall testify the same 
to the possession. We will state the formal compact 
in this way: Before the world was created, God, the 
Father, saw man, his creature, under the pollution, 
guilt, and dominion of sin, and unable to save himself. 
In the person of Father he said to the person of the 
Son: Yonder are my people, the sheep of my pasture, 
in a state of death. They have violated my law, and 
can never of themselves come into my presence. Now 
if you, as my only Son, will take upon yourself their 
sinful nature, and redeem them from the penalty of 
the law by dying in their stead, I will give them to 
you for an everlasting possession. The Son says, 
Father, it is enough,- I will accept the gift, and pay 
the redemptive price exacted by the bond of the law. 
But, Father, who will make sure to me this possession? 
God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, answers: I will 
administer upon the estate, and execute this will, 
returning to you all that is yours. 

That this is a fair statement of the nature of the 
covenant of redemption, called the new covenant, will 
be seen by the following considerations : 

First. God, in the person of the Father, proposes 
human redemption. This is the testimony of Jesus 



80 The Church of Christ. 

himself. "For God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 
3:16. Here, we have God proposing to save the 
believer on Jesus. The question is: When, and to 
whom did God so propose? The answer is: To the 
Son in eternity. Paul, in writing to Timothy (2:1-9), 
brings out the thought thus: "Who saved us, and 
called us with a holy calling, not according to our 
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 
which was given us in Christ Jesus before times 
eternal." This salvation included a choice in Christ, 
"even as he (the Father) chose us in him (Christ) 
before the foundation of the world, that we should be 
holy and without blemish before him (the Father) in 
love." Eph. 1:4. 

Second. The Son accepted those chosen in him, 
and agreed to pay the price of their redemption, by 
giving himself as a sacrifice for them. Let it not be 
forgotten, that from the moment the Son ageed to give 
himself as an offering for men, from that moment he 
stood to the Father as an offering accepted for the sins 
of his people. They were no longer treated in them- 
selves, but in Christ who stood for them. In Hebrews 
2:13, quoted by the apostle from Isaiah 8:18, and 
applied to Jesus, we have this statement, "Behold, 
I and the children which God hath given me." And 
in John 17:6, the gift is further emphasized by Jesus, 
saying: "I manifested thy name unto the men whom 
thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and 



Identity — Objections Answered. 81 

thou gavest them to me." In verses 9, 11, and 12, 
we have the same gift emphasized, and in John 
10:26, ft", Jesus says of his sheep, "My sheep hear my 
voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I 
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never 
perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 
My Father, which gave them unto me, is greater than 
all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the 
Father's hand." Three questions arise here: 

(1) Who were these children, these sheep 
which were given to Jesus! They were believers, 
those who hear his voice, and follow him. He took 
not hold for angels, nor yet for the seed of Adam, but 
he took hold of the seed of Abraham. Heb. 2:16. 
"For this is the will of my Father, that every one that 
beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have 
eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day." 
John 6:40. 

(2) When were they given to Jesus? When 
the covenant of redemption was entered into between 
the Father and the Son. This was a transaction which: 
took place in eternity. Everywhere in both Old and. 
New Testaments, the formation of this compact is 
represented as antedating time. "According to the 
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." Eph. 3:11. Of the eternity of this transac- 
tion, we have this beautiful picture in Proverbs, 
8:22-31: 

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, 

Before his works of old. 

I was set up from everlasting, from the "beginning, 
6 



82 The Church of Christ. 

Or ever the earth was. 

When there were no depths, I was "brought forth : 

When there were no fountains abounding with water. 

Before the mountains were settled, 

Before the hills was I brought forth : 

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, 

Xor the beginning of the dust of the world. 

When he established the heavens, 

I was there : 

When he set a circle on the face of the deep: 

When he made firm the skies above: 

When the fountains of the deep became strong: 

When he gave the sea its bound. 

That the waters should not transgress his commandment : 

When he marked out the foundations of the earth : 

Then I was by him, as a master workman: 

And I was daily his delight, 

Rejoicing always before him; 

Rejoicing in his habitable earth; 

And my delight was with the sons of men." 

Here we have Jesus Christ taking joyous delight 
with the sons of men in the habitable parts of the 
earth, at a time antedating the creation of the world. 
But how, we may ask. And the answer is: G-od had 
given to him these sons of men as an everlasting 
possession. 

(3) Why were they given to Jesus? He him- 
self tells us in no uncertain way, why it was done. "I 
am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down 
his life for the sheep." John 10:11. They needed to 
be redeemed from the guilt, corruption, and dominion 
of sin, and that this might be done, they were given to 
Jesus to be redeemed by himself, as an acceptable 
offering to God for their transgressions. Hence they 



Identity — Objections Answered. 83 

were the consideration of value received by Christ for 
his death, the price paid for them. So the apostle 
says, "Ye are not your own; for ye were bought with 
a price." I Cor. 6:19, 20. 

Third. Of this will, disposing of an estate, the 
Holy Spirit is the administrator. His relation to the 
will is that of seeing that the estate is properly trans- 
ferred in title and character to him to whom it belongs 
by right of purchase, as per conditions of the will. 
He is to certify this will to the hearts of those given to 
Christ, and thereby make sure to Christ the possession 
for which he died. 

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I 
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, 
and with the house of Judah: not according to the 
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that 
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land 
of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I 
was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this 
is the covenant that I will make with the house of 
Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my 
law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I 
write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my 
people: and they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know 
the Lord ; for they shall all know me, from the least 
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for 
I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I re- 
member no more." Jer. 31:31-34. Now this is 
quoted by the writer of the Hebrew letter, and applied 



84 The Church of Christ. 

by him to the covenant of human redemption. The 
administration of this covenant to the hearts of men, 
is by the Holy Spirit. The apostle speaking of its 
application to the hearts of men, says, "Written not 
with ink, but with the spirit of the living God; not in 
tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh." 
II Cor. 3:3. 

The point we raise is this: The Holy Spirit can 
only certify this will to the hearts of the heirs with 
Christ in the possession of the promise, in consideration 
of the atonement made by Christ having been accepted by 
the Father. The question arises : When was the atone- 
ment accepted as satisfactory? At the time of the 
actual offering of the blood of Christ in connection 
with his sufferings in time, or when he agreed in 
eternity with the Father, to give himself an offering 
for his people? 

We answer: When he agreed with the Father, in 
eternity, to make himself an offering for the sins of his 
people. It is on the basis of an accepted offering 
that the Bible proposes salvation in the Old Testa- 
ment, as well as in the new. The agreement with the 
Father was equal to the fact, and from that moment, in 
eternity, Christ stood in his relations to the covenant 
of redemption, as "the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and in which 
character he stands as "slain from the foundation of 
the world" (Rev. 13:8). An illustration to the point 
is found in the offering of Isaac by Abraham. When 
commanded of God to offer his son, the son in whom 



Identity — Objections Answered. 85 

was the promise, he withheld him not, but journeyed 
out three days to the appointed place. From the 
moment that the command came, to the staying, by 
the angel, of Abraham's hand lifted to slay his son, 
Isaac was as dead to his father. Abraham " ac- 
counted, that God is able to raise up, even from the 
dead; from whence he did also in a parable receive 
him back." Heb. 11:19. 

If, as an historical fact, expiation for sin was 
not accomplished until Jesus died on the cross and 
his exaltation and enthronement followed his resur- 
rection, then, how could the Holy Spirit certify the 
blessings of salvation to the hearts of those living 
prior to this time? Eemember that this can only be 
done in view of the fact that the atonement is ac- 
cepted by the Father, for it is in consideration of the 
atonement that the Holy Spirit administers the bless- 
ings of salvation provided thereby. The thought may 
be illustrated in this way: Jones owes Smith five 
hundred dollars and can not pay it. Turner says to 
Smith, charge the account of Jones to me, I will pay 
it in five years. Smith having confidence in Turner's 
ability to discharge the debt, releases Jones and ac- 
cepts Turner. So the debt is remitted against Jones 
as soon as imputed to Turner, though it is held against 
Turner till he actually pays it. Thus sins were not 
expiated G-odward until Jesus died on the cross, but 
have been remitted manward in every age of the world 
on penitence toward God and faith in the Messiah — 
substitute — whether before or since his coming. His- 



86 The Church of Christ. 

torically, Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was sacrificed for 
sin only about nineteen hundred years ago. In the 
mind of God he was accounted a "Lamb slain from 
the foundation of the world/' and as such, and in this 
character was preached, and was accepted through 
saving faith, by Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, 
David, and all Old Testament saints. (See Hebrews, 
eleventh chapter.) On this line Peter, speaking of 
the people and their gospel privileges long before 
Christ came into the world, has said: "For this cause 
was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, 
that they might be judged according to men in the 
flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." I 
Pet. 4:6. We see, therefore, that the objection is not 
well taken. The Christ crucified was certified by the 
Holy Spirit to the faith of Abel and Enoch and 
Noah, and to Moses, who esteemed the reproaches of 
his cross, and to Abraham, who saw his day, and to 
Isaiah, to whom he stood as a slaughtered lamb. 
Eeturning to the question, was the assembly on the 
mount convoked by the call of the gospel, we are in 
a position to answer affirmatively. Many of them 
were of the disciples of John, and not a few of them 
were the direct results of Christ's own ministry. That 
John's ministry belongs to the gospel dispensation is 
clearly stated. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God. Even as it is written in Isaiah 
the prophet, Behold I send my messenger before thy 
face, who shall prepare thy way: the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, make ye ready the way of 



Identity — Objections Answered. 87 

the Lord, make his paths straight." Mark 1:1-13. 
When John began his labors in fulfillment of the 
prophecies that had gone before, he broke the dark- 
ness of the long night of four hundred years through 
which the Jews had passed, by announcing the 
Messianic reign. "As all the people were in expecta- 
tion" (Luke 3:15) of the coming Messiah, the an- 
nouncement was received with joy by many o£ the 
people who gathered about John with penitent faith 
and humble obedience to the simple demands of his 
teaching. His father Zacharias had been led by the 
Holy Spirit to set forth in beautiful strain the mission 
of his son: "Yea, and thou, child, shalt be called the 
prophet of the Most High: for thou shalt go before 
the face of the Lord to make ready his ways : to give 
knowledge of salvation unto his people, in the remis- 
sion of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our 
God, whereby the dayspring from on high shall visit 
us, to shine upon them that sit in darkness and the 
shadow of death; to guide our feet in the way of 
peace." Luke 1:76-79. And when he to whom 
John was forerunner was born in the city of David, 
the angels left yonder celestial abode, to break the 
stillness of the Judean night with the rapturous song 
of heavenly choir : 

"Glory to God in the highest, 
And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased." 

—Luke 2 : 14. 

With completed joy, John pointed his disciples to 
Jesus, as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin 
of the world, and they turned from him who had pre- 



88 The Church of Christ. 

pared them, to him for whom they had been prepared. 
They were gathered from him which decreased unto 
him to whose government there should be an endless 
increase. 

And when Jesus came, and was introduced to his 
own prepared people at his baptism by John, and 
approved as the Son of God by the Father and the 
Holy Spirit, he began a conquerous march in the 
strength of his own gospel, before which disease and 
death and demands fled. He preached the gospel in 
Galilee. "Now after that John was delivered up, 
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 
and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of 
God is at hand; repent ye, and believe in the gospel. " 
Mark 1:14, 15. He had previously preached it in 
Judea with telling effect (John 3:22, and 4:1, 2), gath- 
ering about him many who were made disciples, and 
then baptized. He goes from Galilee down to Naza- 
reth, where he had lived and grown to manhood, and 
enters into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was 
his custom. Many times in early life he had entered 
into this synagogue, but never before on such a mission 
as on this occasion. There was delivered unto him 
the book of Isaiah, which he opened at what is now 
the sixty-first chapter, and read, "The spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor," etc. 

And on to the end of his life, by parable, by dis- 
course, by example, he continued to preach the gospel 
unto the people. And the number which accepted him 



Identity — Objections Answered. 89 

grew constantly larger. And when the dark hour of 
the end had come, he made an appointment for a last 
meeting with his church after he was raised from the 
dead. They are here in that meeting, not by the call 
of the law, nor yet by accident, but by the call of 
Jesus, and pursuant to his carefully arranged plan. 
It is to receive, as his church, his own bride whom he 
loved, his last message. 

III. The church is called through regeneration. 
None can enter heaven without this, and none without 
it should enter the church. That the disciples as a 
class were regenerated, it seems would be denied by 
no one. Yet 7 not all admit it. True, if the gospel had 
not been preached in fact until Pentecost, they could 
not be regenerated at this time since regeneration is 
the work of the Holy Spirit in applying the benefits of 
the atonement to the hearts of men, which thing the 
Holy Spirit could not do until the Father accepted the 
atonement as satisfactory. But we have seen that God 
accepted the atonement of Christ as satisfactory from 
eternity. 

This objection is based on the thought, that the 
Holy Spirit was not yet given. The passage most 
relied on to sustain the objection is John 14:16, 18: 
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another comforter, that he may be with you forever, 
even the spirit of truth, whom the world can not 
receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth 
him. Ye know him; for he abideth with you, and 
shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate; I come 



90 The Church of Christ, 

unto you." It is argued from this passage, that the 
Holy Spirit was not yet in the world, and hence the 
church — if such it may be called — was simply a body 
without life, as the physical body of Adam was 
a mere form until God breathed into it life. Therefore 
the shedding forth of the Holy Spirit on the day of 
Pentecost, was the indwelling of the church with the 
life of regeneration. If it were the regenerating work 
of the Holy Spirit that Christ is here promising, all 
this, and much more, would be true. 

It is not our purpose at this place to enter into a 
discussion of the character of this special mission of 
the spirit — the discussion of which belongs properly 
to the historical permanence of the gospel — only to 
remark that he was to come in a sense in which the 
world did not know him, and could not know. But 
the disciples did know him, "ye know him," in a sense 
which prepared them to receive him, when come as 
here promised. In his relations to the permanent 
establishment of the gospel, the world did not know 
him, and more, could not know him. 

Suffice this brief statement to answer at this time 
as to the nature of this promise of the coming Para- 
clete. Was the Holy Spirit never in the world in his 
regenerating relations to the work of redemption until 
given on Pentecost folloiving the resurrection of Christ f 

We answer, yes. Through all the ages of the past 
he had been testifying to the hearts of men, the 
efficacy of the blood of Christ. 



Identity — Objections Answered. 91 

1. His presence in prehistoric times, or times 
before any part of our Bible was reduced to writing. 
11 And the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with 
man forever, for that he also is flesh ; yet shall his days 
be an hundred and twenty years. 7 ' Gen. 6:3. Here 
God tells us that his spirit is in strife with men before 
the flood. But how could the spirit strive with these 
antediluvians! There was no written word of God 
as yet. And remember, that in his relations to the 
covenant of redemption as administrator, he can only 
certify its claims and blessings to the hearts of men in 
view of the death of Christ, by which it is ratified hav- 
ing been accepted by the Father as satisfactory. 

Now it is precisely on this ground, that the 
apostles tell us that the spirit preached to these people. 

"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the 
righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us 
to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened 
in the spirit; in which (that is, in the spirit), also, he 
went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which 
aforetime were disobedient, when the long suffering of 
God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a 
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight, souls were saved 
by water." 1 Peter 3:18-20. And the same apostle 
further tells us the purpose in view in preaching the 
suffering Christ to these people. "For unto this end 
[the judgment] was the gospel preached even to the 
dead, that they might be judged according to men in 
the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." I 
Peter 4:6. They could not "live according to God in 



92 The Church of Christ. 

the spirit," without being made spiritual, and they 
could not be made spiritual without the regenerating 
presence of the Holy Spirit. 

As to the effect of the Holy Spirit witnessing the 
sufferings of Christ to the immediate antediluvians, 
we have the statement of the apostle in the Hebrew 
letter, thus: "By faith Noah, being warned of Grod 
concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly 
fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; 
through which he condemned the world, and became 
heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." 
Heb. 11:7. The question may be asked, what is "the 
righteousness which is according to faith?" And the 
answer is: The righteousness which Christ by his 
death brought in, the righteousness which is every- 
where accounted to faith. The apostle associates Abel 
and Enoch with the same righteousness, and in the 
same way. It is therefore certain, that the Holy 
Spirit was present in his regenerating relation to the 
work of redemption before the flood. 

In postdiluvian times, the same was true of Abra- 
ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the patriarchs 
down to the giving of the law. 

2. The Holy Spirit's presence in his regenerat- 
ing relation to redemption in historic times, and prior 
to New Testament times. Of the saved during this 
period, we have this general statement by the apostle 
Peter: "Concerning which salvation the prophets 
sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the 
grace that should come unto you; searching what 



Ide7itity — Objections Answered. 93 

time or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which 
was in them did point unto, when it testified before- 
hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that 
should follow." I Peter 1:10, 11. Two things are 
stated here. First. That the spirit was in these men 
of old. Second. That he was testifying to them the 
sufferings of Christ. This makes it clear that they were 
regenerated by the Holy Spirit. 

Manifestly he could not dwell in the heart of the 
unrenewed in the sense of witnessing to the same the 
benefits of Christ's righteousness. Were it needful, 
individual cases might be brought forward, such as 
that of Moses(Heb. 11:23-26) and David (Psalm 51), 
and Isaiah (Isa. 53), but it is not necessary after this 
general statement by Peter, which evidently includes 
any individual case that might be pointed out. 

3. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the New 
Testament prior to Pentecost, in his regenerating rela- 
tion to men. The denial of the Holy Spirit's presence 
with the saints of the Old Testament has been 
attended with unbelief in him in the New Testament. 
This has had the tendency to reduce Christianity to 
mere forms and ceremonies, taking from it the life 
and conscience that are its rightful possessions. Jesus 
taught in no uncertain way that worship, to be accept- 
able to his Father, must be spiritual, and certainly no 
unregenerate heart could render such a service." But 
the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for 
such doth the Father seek to be his worshipers. Grod 



94 The Church of Christ. 

is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship 
in spirit and in truth." John 4:23, 24. This is a gen- 
eral principle laid down by our Lord, as characteristic 
of true worship ; moreover, it is a principle that can not 
be carried out without the spiritual character due alone 
to regeneration. Previously, Jesus had announced to 
Nicodemus the doctrine of the new birth, and its 
spiritual character. "Except a man be born anew, he 
can not see the kingdom of God. * * * That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the 
spirit is spirit." John 3:3 and 6. It would certainly 
be folly in Jesus to demand fchis spirit birth as essential 
to entrance into the kingdom of heaven at a time when 
it was not possible. And yet this is the folly of the 
position which holds that the Holy Spirit was not in 
the world till Pentecost day. Later on Jesus says: 
"My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36) ; and 
of his disciples composing that kingdom, "Ye are not 
of the world, but I chose you out of the world, there- 
fore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). 

With this general statement of the doctrine of 
regeneration by the Holy Spirit, may be associated the 
evangelical character of the repentance and faith exer- 
cised by the disciples of both John and Jesus. Man 
is represented as being dead in trespasses and sins, and 
everywhere the disposition to turn from such a state is 
represented as brought about by creative power. The 
work of creating in men this new disposition belongs 
exclusively to the Holy Spirit. He, and he alone, 
administers upon the heart, and claims it for Christ. 



Identity — Objections Answered. 95 

Let us now notice some examples which unmis- 
takably show the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the 
regeneration by him of human hearts prior to the day 
of Pentecost. "But as many as received him, to them 
gave he the right to become the children of God, even 
to them that believed on his name; which were born, 
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
of man, but of God." John 1:12, 13. Whatever 
proves that one is born of God, proves regeneration by 
the Holy Spirit, and therefore proves his presence. 
This statement of John may be taken as true of all who 
received him throughout his ministry. Hence, all in 
the assembly who had accepted Christ by believing on 
him were regenerated. Daring the ministry of Christ 
this qualification for church membership was estab- 
lished once for all, and that church which admits 
persons to her fellowship without regard to regenera- 
tion, forfeits in that act all claim to be regarded as a 
New Testament church. 

IV. The church is a voluntary association in 
Christ under the gospel. Voluntary action presupposes 
choice, and choice presupposes the presence and exercise 
of will. The call of the gospel is addressed to the 
understanding and will of man, and its blessings are 
promised only to those who make personal choice of 
Christ, by the exercise of a vital faith, appropriating 
the benefits of his sacrificial offering for sin. "Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28), is the form of invita- 
tion it proclaims. And that "whosoever" with which 



96 The Church of Christ. 

it burdens come, admits of no one who does not have 
understanding, will, and the power of choice. Christ 
said of some, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye 
might have eternal life ; " showing the power of per- 
sonal choice on the other side of the question. But 
what is meant by the expression "in Christ under the 
gospel?" We answer: In fellowship with him. Being 
at one with him. Feeling as he feels, desiring as he 
desires, thinking as he thinks, and doing as he does. 
We frequently say of one who is a church member, 
he is in the church. We mean, he is a member of the 
church and in fellowship with the same. Just so, 
to be in Christ is to be a member of his body, the 
church, and to be in fellowship with him. To be 
in fellowship with him, is to love him. Did not the 
disciples love Jesus? Had they not endured the hard- 
ships of his personal ministry! Had they not already 
submitted to the dominion of his gospel over them? 
And were they not now giving their lives, with all that 
was meant by such resignation, to its sovereign claims 
upon them? 

We need notice but a few examples of the eagerness 
with which the disciples associated themselves with 
Jesus, and took up the labors of the gospel. Soon 
after his baptism, John pointed him out to two of his 
disciples, as he passed by. One of them was Andrew. 
They turned from John to Jesus, and joined their lives 
with his. Peter is found by Andrew, and he follows 
Jesus. Next day Jesus found Philip, and said to him, 
"follow me," and he left all and followed Christ. 



Identity — Objections Answered. 97 

Philip fmdeth Nathanael, and he follows Jesus. Thus 
the number swells, until it is reported that Jesus is 
making and baptizing more disciples than John. The 
number increased, both of men and women. They 
were not idlers in the vineyard. They all labored in 
the gospel. The women were received as a kind of 
mission circle ( Luke 8:1,3), and doubtless accumulated 
the funds necessary to support the work. The twelve 
were sent forth on independent mission tours, with 
power and authority ( Luke 9:1,6). And later on , when 
the field was fast ripening unto the harvest, he appointed 
and sent out seventy others to labor in the gospel. 
Truly they were in Christ under the gospel. Perhaps 
no church congregation has existed since that time, 
that was more perfectly in fellowship with Christ, and 
more completely subjected to his will as expressed to 
them in the gospel. Would to Grod that all our churches 
were as that was, in this respect. 

V. This association is for the purpose of observ- 
ing the order of the gospel and preaching Christ to the 
world. 

By the order of the gospel is meant, the worship 
required by the gospel, and in the order in which it 
is required in the same. This includes preaching or 
teaching, baptizing, and observing all things com- 
manded by Christ. This comprehends the full pur- 
poses of church organization. With many, the church 
is regarded as a "savior body," membership in which 
is essential to salvation, but as this whole question 
belongs to another proposition to be considered later, 
7 



98 The Church of Christ. 

viz., the functions of the church, it is not needful 
for us to enter into its full discussion here. It will not 
be disputed that the elements we have just mentioned 
represent the primary purpose for which the church is 
called into existence. The dispute is on the efficacy 
derived from these things when done. Nor will it be 
denied that this assembly had been brought thus far 
on the way, by the exact order which it is now com- 
manded to perpetuate to the end of the world. 

We see, therefore, existing in the assembly on the 
mountain, every element that would not be required by 
any people on earth, to recognition as a New Testament 
church. They had been called by the gospel. They 
were regenerated men and women. They were volun- 
tarily confederated in Christ, in holy submission to the 
sovereign claims of the gospel. In the proclamation 
of its blessings they had engaged and were to be con- 
tinued. And from them have come down to us and to 
every age in the past, the same message of glad tidings 
of great joy, at first proclaimed among the Judean hills. 

This command to the church on the mountain 
linked that company with the destinies of the race of 
mankind. It was more far-reaching perhaps, than 
they thought or understood. But this was not neces- 
sary to the purposes for which it was given. It was 
only necessary to understand the sovereign claim of 
the duty imposed. And how well this was under- 
stood, we shall yet see, when we come to examine into 
the historical permanency of their labors. They came 
forth from this mountain top to the work to which they 



Identity — Objections Aizsxvered. 99 

were on this occasion appointed. In the loyal dis- 
charge of the solemn duties once for all imposed, they 
not only in a large measure lifted the curtain of the 
long night of sin from the Jewish nation, but pene- 
trated into the heart of the Gentile world with the glad 
tidings of salvation. Their love for Christ was ardent, 
and prompted them to give more for his cause than is 
now given by the most of those who deny to them the 
character of being the church, or even of being regen- 
erated at this time. It is both unscriptural and illogi- 
cal to charge that Christ thrust the momentous respon- 
sibilities of preaching his gospel to the uttermost 
bounds of the earth upon an assembly of persons 
"without love" and "without form and void." Yet this 
is the final analysis to which the position, that the 
church was first formed on the Pentecost following 
the resurrection, is reducible. This confusion all 
grows out of the confounding of the work of the Holy 
Spirit in regeneration, with his relations to the histor- 
ical permanency of the gospel and the church. Here 
in this company is the complete personal of the church 
of Christ. 



100 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

CHAPTER III. 



THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE 

CHURCH. 

I.— The Episcopacy Opposed to the New Testament Idea 

of the Church. 



IN the midst of so many differing organizations of 
* Christian people, each claiming to be the church or 
a part of the same, the question comes up: How may 
one know which of these claimants, — if either, — is the 
church our Lord established? It is quite obvious that 
the instrument, through which the church was called 
into being, provides also for the features which distin- 
guish the church from all other assemblies of whatever 
name or character they may be. It is clear, also, that 
these features are contained in full in the instrument 
which calls the church into being. Any features not 
clearly outlined in the gospel, the instrument through 
which the church exists, must be regarded as of hu- 
man origin, — the paintings that men have put on the 
photograph; paintings which, instead of adding to 
the beauty of the bride of Christ, have marred her 
classic form and obscured her delightful graces. It is 
well to place before our minds one thought, before 
entering into the discussion of the question in a general 
way: viz., the oneness of the church. There is such a 
oneness belonging to the church, that the establish- 
ment of a local congregation of the same, at any time 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 101 

and place, is a practical reproduction and embodiment 
of the features of the first church at Jerusalem. The 
embodiment of more than was in the model church 
destroys the unity; and to contain less equally invali- 
dates the claim to identity. 

Of this oneness the scriptures speak in no uncertain 
way. "For as the body is one, and hath many mem- 
bers, and all the members of the body, being many, are 
one body; so also is Christ. For in one spirit were we 
all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, 
whether bond or free ; and were all made to drink of 
one spirit." I Cor. 12: 12, 13. The comparison of 
the church in this passage to a human body is signifi- 
cant of its oneness. The human body in all ages is 
practically one, having the same form, being composed 
of the same substances, having the same parts in detail, 
and each of the several parts supplying the same func- 
tion. So that through all the ages, the generation of 
an additional human body has been but a reproduction 
of the first man, Adam. So, too, in all the forms Grod 
created, the form and features are preserved in the 
species when once established. That there are many 
members in the human body does not destroy its unity, 
but these members make up the unity of the same. In 
just this manner, the apostle declares there is but one 
body or church, and the species of organization or 
body is established in the first church formed. Indi- 
vidual Christians constitute members of the one body, 
and by organization, make up the unity of the same. 
The same apostle further develops this oneness, and 



102 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

the cardinal elements of which it consists, in Ephesians 
4:4, 6: "There is one body, and one spirit, even as 
also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one G-od and Father 
of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all." 
Here is the one church reproduced, the one spirit by 
which it is reproduced, and the one hope in view. 
Here is the one faith in the one Christ, the one baptism 
by which it is confessed, and the one sovereign God 
over all of it, as final author of it. The New Testa- 
ment uses the term "church" when speaking of the 
local assembly at a given place, as the church which is 
at Corinth, and the plural "churches" when speaking 
of the local congregations of a given country, as the 
churches of Asia; but it no where even hints at there 
being the least difference in them, in form or doctrines. 
The government of the United States at one time 
authorized the coinage of silver dollars to contain four 
hundred and twelve and one half grains, of which three 
hundred and seventy-three grains and a fraction were 
to be pure silver. From the casting of the mold for 
the first dollar under this act to the time the act ceases 
to be of force, every silver dollar coined by the author- 
ity of the act, must be an exact reproduction of the 
first dollar cast. When you speak of one silver dollar, 
you have before you the unit of value of all silver 
dollars coined by the act. And whether you speak of 
a hundred silver dollars or only one, you still have 
before you as the unit of value one silver dollar. Just 
so with the church. The mold was cast in the forma- 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 103 

tion of the first local assembly of the church by Christ, 
and from the time it was formed to the close of the 
New Testament canon, and even to the end of time, for 
a local assembly of Christian people to be considered 
the church, they must be an exact reproduction of the 
first mold or model church, as established by Christ. 

Take the Baptist church, and speak and write of 
it as did the apostles of the church during their time, 
and you would not conclude that there were as many 
Baptist churches, all differing in form and doctrine, as 
there are different local congregations of Baptists. 
There is one Baptist church, but many local congre- 
gations of Baptists, each reproducing substantially in 
form and doctrine just what is contained in all the 
others. This is the New Testament idea of the church. 
This idea of the oneness of the church is held forth as 
perpetual. The church described in the New Testa- 
ment must be regarded as the one bride of Christ. She 
must be perfect in each reproduction of her person, not 
wanting in some of her parts, nor yet having more 
parts that belong to her perfect person. It is by the 
New Testament photograph of the bride of Christ that 
we may identify her, even in the midst of any number 
of claimants for that honor. 

A careful investigation will disclose the fact that 
four doctrines sustain and uphold all the various com- 
munions of Christian people, claiming to be the church 
or a part of it. The study of these doctrines will bring 
out the effect that the abandonment of each would 
have on those communions undeniably based on them 
respectively : 



104 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

1. The episcopacy. This is that form of church 
polity which is vested in official ranks, having author- 
ity that is mandatory over the local congregation. It 
is held in a more or less modified form by the following 
communions of so-called Christian people. The Roman 
Catholic church, called the Western, or Latin, church. 
The Greek, or Eastern, church. They deny the vice- 
gerency of the pope, however. The Jansenist church 
of Holland, and the Old Catholic church. These deny 
the supremacy of the pope. The Church of England 
and the Episcopal church of the United States. The 
Reformed Episcopal church holds to an episcopacy of 
expediency. The Moravian church, often called Breth- 
ren, is an episcopacy, though since 1881 they have 
discouraged it. The Lutheran church, though now strug- 
gling to abandon it. The Reformed church — Presby- 
terian — is a limited episcopacy. The Methodist church 
in the United States. All of these churches are under 
the episcopal government in a more or less modified 
form of the doctrine. At the twenty-third council of 
Trent the Roman Catholic episcopacy was defined as 
follows: "If anyone saiththatin the Catholic church 
there is not a hierarchy instituted by divine ordi- 
nance, consisting of bishops, and priests, and deacons, 
let him be anathema." (Canon vi.) Episcopacy is as 
essential to the Roman church as the sacraments. 
The Roman church can not exist without it. The 
bishops are the immediate successors of the apostles, 
and superior to the priests, and deacons, not only in 
the extent of jurisdiction, but in the kind of grace and 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 105 

function belonging to the office. Ordination is a sacra- 
ment, and confers a grace which is permanent. The 
pope of Rome is at the head of the hierarchy of 
bishops, and is the immediate successor of Peter, who 
was the first pope. The authority, and power to 
perpetuate the Roman Catholic church resides in 
this hierarchy. Without it Romanism can not exist. 
The head, the heart, the life, and the all in all is here. 
When the reformation came forth from Rome, it 
sought not to cast off the hierarchy, but to reform 
it. Hence it was retained, but with the denial of the 
supremacy of the pope. So that the communions of 
people which resulted from that movement are still 
hierarchies, but in a milder form than that of the 
Roman Catholic church. The Methodist church is 
hierarchical in its constitution. The final, or high 
court of these churches determines doctrines, formu- 
lates laws, appoints inferior officers, and prescribes 
duties, and limits authority, hears cases of appeal on 
doctrines and discipline, and frequently reverses the 
findings of the subordinate courts and local assemblies. 
The power to ordain ministers in all of them is usurped 
from the hands of the congregation and placed in those 
of courts having jurisdiction of the special order of 
ministry to be created. In no instance does the power 
to create and ordain a ministry belong to the local 
assembly. Now, were these hierarchies, these courts 
having authority over the church assembly, removed, 
you see at once that these various communions of 
Christians must cease to exist as such, since the power 



106 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

to perpetuate no longer exists. Therefore we say that 
the doctrine upon which their very existence depends 
is the doctrine of episcopacy. No wonder they guard 
the doctrine with such jealous care. It is a matter of 
life and death. Once their people rise up and demand 
the freedom with which Christ has made them free, it 
is the day of doom and destruction of all churches that 
have usurped the consciences of men, and trampled on 
the freedom that belongs to the sons of God. Let us 
now turn to the history of the rise of this hierarchical 
church government for a moment. 

Moshiem says: "A bishop, during the first and 
second century, was a person who had the care of one 
Christian assembly, which, at that time, was, generally 
speaking, small enough to be contained in a private 
house. In this assembly he acted, not so much with 
the authority of a master, as with the zeal and diligence 
of a faithful servant." Mos. Church History, p. 20. 
The tone and simplicity of this statement reminds one 
of the teachings of Christ and his apostles. All credi- 
ble historians are in accord with the facts here alleged 
by Moshiem. 

Passing to the third century, Mr. Robinson has 
this to say: "In the third century Jewish theology 
drew off the attention of Christians from the simplicity 
of Jesus and the gospel, and fixed it on an hierarchy, 
particularly in the great, corrupt, and wealthy churches 
of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage. This 
introduced, by degrees, a second period, and a second 
system of ecclesiastical management named, by this 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 107 

author, the episcopal system of church law." Rob.'s 
Eccl. Res., p. 124. And Mr. Miall, speaking of the 
growth toward hierarchical assumptions in the third 
century, says: "It is, however, very clear that this 
century witnessed a rapid increase of hierarchical 
power. The clergy began, for the first time, to be dis- 
tinguished from the laity. The bishops assumed the 
titles and offices of the Jewish priesthood. The primi- 
tive virtues by which many of the pastors of the met- 
ropolitan churches were distinguished, caused them 
to be regarded as the advisors of neighboring churches, 
and paved the way for an assertion of superiority which 
speedily passed the bounds of apostolic prescription." 
MiaWs Memo, of Early Christ., p. 227. Out of this 
tendency, and this condition of affairs, the hierarchy 
was developed, and not from the teachings of the New 
Testament. But with this, as with all other innova- 
tions when once established, its advocates seek to sup- 
port it by the teachings of the word of God. As to 
the officers of the church, aside from the apostles, Mr. 
Miall has this to say: "But, besides these extraor- 
dinary officers, each church possessed the power, under 
the advice and admonition of the apostles, of electing 
distinct officers for the arrangement of its peculiar con- 
cerns. These were presbyters (as they were designated 
by the application of a term in use by the Jewish syna- 
gogues), or bishops (as they were called at a somewhat 
later period by a phrase familiar to Gentile usage). 
The terms are obviously interchangeable — the former 
referring to the character which fitted them for the 



108 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

office ; and the latter to the relations of the office itself. ' ' 
Memo, of Early Christ., p. 76. 

But Miall does not stand alone among ancient 
Christian historians in recording this opinion. Neander 
is in accord with him, as are all others, and especially 
the apostle Paul. Neakder has this to say at this 
point: "That the name also, episcopos, was altogether 
synonymous with that of presbyter, is clearly collected 
by the passages of scripture where both appellations 
are interchanged (Acts, xx., compare ver. 17 with ver. 
28; epistle to Titus, ch. 1, verses 5 and 7), as well as 
from those where the mention of the office of deacon fol- 
lows immediately after that of 'episcopoi ; ' so that a third 
class of officers could not lie between the two." Hist. 
Three Centuries, p. 106. 

It is worth while, at this place, to examine into 
the apostle's use of the terms. In Acts 20:17, pres- 
buterous from which the advocates of the hierarchy 
derive one rank of officers, is used by Paul in naming 
the elders of the church at Ephesus, for whom he sent 
to come down to Miletus. "And from Miletus he sent 
to Ephesus, and called to him the elders '{p res bitter ous) 
of the church." That this word is interchangeable 
with the other — episcopous — is clearly brought out by 
the apostle on this same occasion. In addressing these 
same presbuterous, he says to them: "Take heed to 
yourselves, and to all the flock, in the which the Holy 
Grhost hath made you bishops, episcopous, to feed the 
church of Glod, which he purchased with his own blood. ' ' 
Acts 20:28. No two ranks of officers are referred to 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 109 

here, but only one. This, too, is an inspired use of the 
terms. And, in giving instructions to Titus, the same 
apostle again uses the terms interchangeably: "For 
this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set 
in order the things that were wanting, and appoint 
elders — presbuterous — in every city." Tit. 1:5. In 
verse 7, speaking of the qualifications necessary to fill 
this position, he says: "For the bishop (episcopon) 
must be blameless as G-od's steward." Here, again, 
the two words are used to denote one office only. And 
let it not be forgotten that they were to be officers in 
the local church assembly, and not bishops of a prov- 
ince, or diocese, or of a nation, nor yet of the world, 
but simply of one congregation. But, with the estab- 
lishment of the hierarchy, the bishop is made ruler over 
a province, or nation, and the bishop of Rome rules over 
the world. 

Me. Waddington, an Episcopalian historian, tes- 
tifies to the oneness of these terms as used by the apos- 
tles, and to the self-government of the first churches. 
He says: "It is also true that in the earliest govern- 
ment of the first Christian society — that of Jerusalem — 
not the elders only, but the whole church were asso- 
ciated with the apostles; and it is even certain that the 
terms bishop, and elder, or presbyter were, in the first 
instance and for a short period, sometimes used synony- 
mously, and indiscriminately applied to the same order 
in the ministry." His. of the Church, p. 20. 

It is not our purpose at this time to enter into a 
discussion of the functions of the hierarchy — that 



110 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

belongs to a subsequent chapter — only so far as to show 
that it is post-scriptural ; something added after the 
close of the New Testament canon. This has already 
been done by the history of its origin, and the use of 
the terms in the New Testament by which it is sought 
to be supported. But further proof of its unscriptural- 
ness may be had by noticing to what extent the first 
church at Jerusalem, and those constituted by the 
apostles later on, managed their own affairs. To what 
extent was the local assembly the guardian of its own 
conduct! The New Testament answers: "In all things. 
It is sovereign over its own affairs, and from its find- 
ings there is no appeal." 

(1) In the selection of officers, the whole church 
took part. After returning to Jerusalem from the 
Mount of Ascension, the apostles with the disciples 
appointed an apostle to fill the place of Judas. "And 
in these days Peter stood up in the midst of the breth- 
ren, and said (and there was a multitude of persons 
gathered together, about a hundred and twenty): 
Brethren, it was needful that the scriptures should be 
fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake before by the 
mouth ol David concerning Judas, who was guide to 
them that took Jesus. For he was numbered among 
us, and received his portion of this ministry. * * * For 
it is written in the book of Psalms: Let his habitation 
be made desolate. And let no man dwell therein, and 
his office let another take." Acts 1:15-20. It was 
divinely prearranged that this place made vacant by 
the betrayal of Judas should be given to another, and 



New Testament Idea of the Church. Ill 

not to Paul, either, as Dk. Gordon holds in his recent 
work on the Holy Spirit. Paul himself testifies oth- 
erwise. In speaking of the appearances of Christ after 
his resurrection, he has this to say: "He appeared to 
Cephas, then to the twelve." I Cor. 15:5. Judas was 
not with them, being dead, and Paul was not himself 
an apostle at this time, nor for several years later. And 
more, he distinguished between himself and the twelve 
in this same connection, thus: "And last of all, as 
unto one born out of due time, he appeared unto me 
also." I Cor. 15:8. This appearance took place when 
Paul was on the way from Jerusalem to Damascus, not 
as a Christian apostle, but as a commissioner of the 
Jewish court, armed with authority to arrest and bring 
bound to Jerusalem, the disciples of Christ, both men 
and women. Who, then, was this twelfth apostle, who 
from the beginning had been chosen in the divine 
mind, and was now to be chosen by the church? Peter 
does not make the appointment, he states the outward 
qualifications, and the assembly makes the choice. 
"Of the men, therefore, which have companied with us 
all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out 
among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto 
the day that he was received up from among us, of these 
must one become a witness with us of his resurrection. 
And they put forward two, Joseph, called Barsabbas, 
who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias." These two 
filled the outward qualifications, but God only could 
know the inward qualifications, and make known which 
of these had been divinely chosen." And they prayed, 



112 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

and said: "Thou, Lord, which knoweth the hearts of all 
men, show of these two the one whom thou hast chosen, 
to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, from 
which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own 
place." And they gave lots for them; and the lot fell 
upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven 
apostles." In this important transaction, the power 
and duty of filling the vacancy rested with the church. 
The relation of Peter and the other apostles differed 
in no respect from that of the other disciples — both 
men and women — except to give instructions as to the 
qualifications necessary. 

The next time the church is called on to exercise 
this right of choosing officers is some years later, when 
the necessity arose for the appointment of the seven 
deacons of the Jerusalem congregation. The history 
is quite simple, and shows at a glance just what part 
was taken, both by the disciples and the apostles. 
"Now in these days, when the number of disciples was 
multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Grecian 
Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were 
neglected in the daily ministration. And the twelve 
called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and 
said : It is not fit that we should forsake the word of 
God and serve tables. Look ye out, therefore, breth- 
ren, from among you seven men of good report, full of 
the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over 
this business. But we will continue steadfastly in 
prayer, and in the ministry of the word. And the 
saying pleased the whole multitude; and they chose 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 113 

Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, 
and Philip, and Prochoras, and Nicanor, and Timon, 
and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch; 
whom they set before the apostles. And when they 
had prayed, they laid their hands on them." Acts 6:1-6. 
An analysis of this passage reveals the following facts : 

First. All twelve of the apostles were present. 
So it is not true, as Dk. Gordon has said, that we never 
hear of Matthias after his appointment. He is here, 
and is giving himself to prayer, and to the word of 
God. 

Second. They are here as advisors only of the 
church, not as a prelatical court usurping authority 
over the church. 

Third. The whole multitude of the disciples is 
called together to consider the matter. 

Fourth. The duty of choosing men to fill the office 
is placed upon the multitude, the church. 

Fifth. The multitude, not the apostles, did choose 
the seven men. 

Sixth. The apostles did ordain them when placed 
before them as approved by the church. Nothing like 
a hierarchy here, but everything to the contrary. It 
is much the same kind of proceeding as is carried out 
by a Baptist congregation at this time. The pastor 
instructs the church as to the kind of men needed to fill 
the office. The church, as such, chooses the men from 
her members, and sets them before the pastor and other 
ministers invited to sit with him in advising the church. 
They pray and lay their hands on the brethren set 

8 



114 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

before them. It is done; the brethren are ordained to 
the office. It is the simple principle of self-government 
with which Christ vested his church. 

(2) The same principle laid down in the selec- 
tion of officers was pursued, also, in the settlement of 
perplexing questions of a doctrinal bearing. " Certain 
men came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and 
taught the brethren, saying: Except ye be circum- 
cised after the law of Moses, ye can not be saved." 
Acts 15:1. Paul and Barnabas, who had been sent 
out as foreign missionaries by this church and the Holy 
Ghost (Acts 13:1, ££), had returned, and reported the 
work accomplished on their journey (Acts 14:26, 27). 
And they disputed the necessity of circumcision. The 
church finally created a commission to go to Jerusa- 
lem and lay the matter before the apostles and elders 
for advice. Paul and Barnabas, and certain other 
brethren, constituted the commission. They accord- 
ingly proceeded to Jerusalem. "And when they were 
come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church 
and the apostles and the elders, and they rehearsed 
all things that God had done with them." Acts 15:4. 
This furnished the occasion for the believing Pharisees 
to precipitate upon the assembly a heated discussion. 
This led the apostles and elders to hold an advisory 
meeting, in which matters were rehearsed by them- 
selves, and by Paul and Barnabas, and advisory con- 
clusions reached. But these conclusions were not 
grafted on the Gentile churches, without the approval 
of the Jerusalem church. "Then it seemed good to the 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 115 

apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to 
choose men out of their own company, and send them 
to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas 
called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the 
brethren." This commission was sent back, not by 
the apostles alone, nor yet by the apostles and elders, 
but by these in conjunction with the whole church, by 
whom the answer to be returned was approved. Noth- 
ing like a hierarchy in this whole proceeding. No 
trace of the pontificate of Peter. It is a plain, simple 
transaction of a church, under the cautious advice of 
her spiritual leaders. 

(3) The same principle of self-government is 
recognized and enforced in matters of discipline. The 
New Testament proceeds on the principle in this regard, 
that it is the duty of each congregation to keep pure 
its membership. Jesus laid down the general law in 
this particular, thus: "And if thy brother sin against 
thee, go, shew him his fault between thee and him 
alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 
But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two 
more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every 
word may be established. And if he refuse to hear 
them tell it unto the church, and if he refuse to hear 
the church also, let him be unto thee as the Grentiles 
and publicans." Matt. 18:15-18. This general law is 
within the possible range of fulfillment by each local 
assembly. It is not a command to tell it to some hier- 
archy, assembled once in four years in some distant 
part of the country, of which you are not a member, 



116 The Episcopacy Opposed to the 

nor can you ever be. Nor yet; are you to tell it to an 
hierarchy dwelling at Rome, one which you never 
witnessed, and perhaps never will. But tell it to the 
church where your membership is, where your cause is 
to be heard, and from whose action there can be no 
appeal. This principle is enforced by command and 
example in the epistles. 

The apostle, in writing to the church at Corinth, 
makes use of this strong ianguage: "But now I write 
unto you not to keep company, if any man that is 
named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an 
idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; 
with such a one no, not to eat. For what have I to 
do with judging them that are without? Do not ye 
judge them that are within, whereas them that are 
without God judgethf Put away the wicked man from 
among you." I Cor. 5:11-13. Here is an imperative 
command to a local church possessed with judgment 
and power to excommunicate the unworthy. He had 
just called their attention to a case of fornication that 
was reported among them, and the evident wrong they 
had committed in not having already put such away 
from them. Said he: "And ye are puffed up, and did 
not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed 
might be taken away from among you. For I verity, 
being absent in body but present in spirit, have already 
as though I were present, judged him that hath wrought 
this thing, in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being 
gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of 
our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 117 

the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be 
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." I Cor. 5:2-5. 
Here the apostle gives instructions as to duty, and 
requires the execution of the principle laid down by 
Jesus to be done by the whole church. It was to be 
done in the power of Jesus, and was therefore final. 
No appeal was possible, since by the very terms of the 
commission (Matt. 28:16-20), the local assembly was 
to be the representative of that power. But the hier- 
archy, even in its mildest protestant forms, takes away 
from the local assembly this duty, placing it in the 
hands of preferred classes ; and even the decision of 
these may be declared null and void by the courts hold- 
ing jurisdiction over them. 

How well this particular church understood and 
carried out the instructions of the apostle, may be 
learned from his second letter. In speaking of this 
same case, he has this to say: "But if any hath caused 
sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not to me, but in part 
(that I press not too heavily) to you all. Sufficient to 
such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by 
the many; so that, contrariwise, ye should rather for- 
give him and comfort him, lest by any means such a 
one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow. 
Wherefore I beseach you to confirm your love toward 
him." II Cor. 2:5-8. The apostle, in instructing to for- 
give and restore, still recognizes the sovereignty of the 
local church. Nowhere in the New Testament is there 
the least hint at an apostle, or any other officer, usurp- 
ing authority over a local assembly of saints. Apostles 



118 The Episcopacy Of posed to the 

and elders advised and instructed in what to do and how- 
to do it, but put the responsibility of accomplishing it, 
just where Christ himself had placed it, on the particular 
congregation addressed. The New Testament church 
polity may be illustrated in this way: Were but two 
or three of her members to survive any great calamity, 
and they be found in different parts of the world, they 
could come together under the directions of the gospel, 
constitute themselves into a church, create a ministry 
of their number, and perpetuate the gospel of Christ 
and the church for which it provides. 

The New Testament polity is reduced to the mini- 
mum of simplicity. It is the most perfect form of self- 
government known in the world. The episcopacy is 
one of the most complicated of all forms of govern- 
ment. It is clearly post-scriptural ; something orig- 
inating this side of the close of the canon of the scrip- 
tures. 

It is more. It is extra-scriptural; something 
grafted onto the scriptures, but without foundation in 
the scriptures. In its mildest form it arrogates to itself 
the right and authority of perpetuating the church over 
which it holds dominion, and in fact assumes to be the 
church. But comparatively few of the number it 
claims to represent have membership in it or can have. 
The communicants at large sustain the relation of serv- 
ants, and not members, and are compelled to bow in 
humble submission to the mandates it sends forth. It 
is not only post-scriptural, and extra-scriptural, 
but may be objected to on other accounts growing out 
of these considerations. 



New Testament Idea of the Church. 119 

First. It usurps the province of the Holy Spirit, 
and makes it impossible for him to accomplish the work 
for which he came into the world. He not only sets 
the members in the church, but the officers also. This 
thought, in both relations, is beautifully brought out 
in I Corinthians, twelfth chapter. It is only of the latter 
relation that we care to speak at present. "And God 
hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly 
prophets, thirdly teachers," etc. I Cor. 12:28; com- 
pare Eph. 4:11-12. 

."But how." we may be asked. The answer is: 
"In just the way described in the New Testament. By 
leading the mind of the local congregation to make 
choice of certain men, and to place them in charge of 
certain work." The case of the choice of Matthias in 
Acts 1, is to the point, as also the choice of the seven 
deacons of Acts 6. Still another case is found in the 
church at Antioch sending forth Paul and Barnabas on 
a foreign mission journey. The record reports it in 
this way: "And as they ministered to the Lord, and 
fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas 
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." 

Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid 
their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, 
being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, went down to 
Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus." 
Acts 13:2-3. The Holy Spirit chooses, as the media 
through which he makes known and qualifies his choice 
of men to fill places, the local assembly of the church. 
General conferences, general assemblies, the council 



120 The Church of Christ. 

of Trent, and the pope of Eome, usurp from the Holy 
Spirit this divinely appointed media of choice, and 
make it impossible for him to accomplish this part of 
the work for which he came into the world, and for 
which he dwells in and permeates the church. 

Second. But the episcopacy may be objected to 
on the ground that it usurps the province of the local 
church, and makes it impossible for the same to obey 
the requirements of the Holy Spirit, expressed out- 
wardly in the gospel and inwardly by his conscious call 
to the heart. The Holy Spirit says, as of old, to the 
heart of a congregation: "Separate me Jones unto the 
work of the ministry unto which I have called him." 
But the hierarchy says: "Not so; that province be- 
longs to us. We fix the orders, prescribe the limits of 
each, and of our own choice appoint men to fill them." 
Thus the local assembly can not comply with the con- 
scious demand of the Holy Spirit. These examples 
show that the spirit of the gospel and the call of the 
Holy Spirit are both obstructed by the hierarchy. It 
is opposed to the New Testament, both in the history 
of its origin and in the spirit of its operations. A local 
assembly of the church of Christ, reproducing the Jeru- 
salem mold and self -governed, is the antipodes of the 
hierarchy. The abandonment of the hierarchy 
would obliterate every church, from the Methodist back 
to the Eoman Catholics, which is governed by bodies 
outside of, and having authority over, the local assem- 
bly. Hence the hierarchy is the doctrine upon which 
such must depend for existence. But as the doctrine 



Baj)tis?nal Salvation. 121 

itself is both post-sckiptukal and extra-scriptural, 
so likewise are the churches growing out of it. They 
are both post-scriptural and extra-scriptural; 
somethiDg coming into existence this side the close of 
the canon, and therefore not provided for in the scrip- 
tures. The first feature of the church then is, self- 
government, as opposed to episcopacy. 



CHAPTER III.— Continued. 

THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OP THE CHURCH. 

II— Baptismal Salvation. 

THE SECOND OF THE FOUR BASAL DOCTRINES IS BAPTISMAL 

SALVATION. 

PHIS is the doctrine that baptism, in some mystical 
*- way. has something to do with the remission of sins. 
It is held by the Eoman Catholic church, and by the 
Greek Catholics, also. It is incorporated in the rituals 
of all pedobaptist churches, forming the basic idea for 
the necessity of infant baptism. It is held by the refor- 
mation of A. Campbell, and by the Mormons or Lat- 
ter Day Saints, as they are sometimes called in differ- 
ent sections of the country. In addition to these, there 
are several smaller communions of people that hold to 
the doctrine. Its origin was contemporaneous with 



122 The Church of Christ. 

that of the episcopacy and of infant baptism, with 
which doctrines it stands inseparably associated in his- 
tory. Me. Miall in speaking of the tendency which 
resulted in the adoption of the doctrine at first, has 
this to say: "In the antenicene period, sin was re- 
garded much more in its overt demonstrations than in 
its spiritual destructiveness ; repentance had degener- 
ated into penance ; regeneration into baptism ; justifi- 
cation by faith into just what the ninetieth number of 
'The Tracts for the Times' declares it to be; and sanc- 
tification was lost in the names of sacred persons, 
sacred things, and sacred places. All this was before 
the papacy had began to blazon its triple crown, or to 
set its feet upon the neck of kings." Memo, of Early 
Christ., p. 368. This, making baptism equal to regen- 
eration spoken of by this author, is just the position 
given to baptism by the advocates of the doctrine in the 
nineteenth century. Me. A. Campbell says: "As 
regeneration is taught to be equivalent to 'being born 
again, 9 and understood to be of the same import with a 
new birth, we shall examine it under this metaphor. 
For if immersion be equivalent to regeneration, and 
regeneration be of the same import with being born 
again, then being born again and being immersed are 
the same thing, for this plain reason, that things which 
are equal to the same thing are equal to one another." 
Christ. Res., p. 205. And in speaking of baptism as 
the act of faith, he has this to say: "Whatever the act 
of faith may be, it necessarily becomes the line of dis- 
crimination between the two states before described. 



Baptismal Salvatio?z. 123 

On this side, and on that, mankind are in quite differ- 
ent states. On the one side, they are pardoned, justi- 
fied, sanctified, reconciled, adopted, and saved; on the 
other, they are in a state of condemnation. This act 
is sometimes called immersion, regeneration, conver- 
sion ; and that this may appear obvious to all, we shall 
be at some pains to confirm and illustrate it." Christ. 
Res., p. 197. And on pages 206 and 207, same work, 
he further says: "To call the receiving of any spirit, 
or any influence, or energy, or any operation upon the 
heart of man, regeneration is an abuse of all speech, as 
well as a departure from the diction of the Holy Spirit, 
ivho calls nothing personal regeneration, except the act of 
immersion." These passages show that Mr. Campbell's 
idea of baptism is that it is equivalent to regeneration ; 
in fact this was the issue upon which he departed from 
the Baptists and inaugurated his reformation move- 
ment. That the people succeeding from his move- 
ment still maintain practically the same view, will not 
be denied by anyone. They still debate the doctrine 
expressed in a proposition of this form: u Baptism as 
commanded in the commission, is for or in order to the 
remission of past sins." The writer has denied this 
proposition in discussion with no less than six of their 
representative men in the last few years. And I have 
before me no less than four published discussions, in 
which their men have advocated the same doctrine. 
The Mormons and Seven Day Adventists hold 
identically the same view on baptism. The pedobap- 
tist view may be fairly represented by examining into 



124 The Church of Christ. 

the ritual of any particular communion, as practically 
the doctrine of infant baptism is held by all of them to 
have the same import. Take as an example, the ritual 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. In the 
Discipline, 1887, we have the following in the article, 
The Ministration of Baptism to Infants: "Dearly be- 
loved, for as much as all men are conceived and born 
in sin, and that our Savior, Christ, saith, 'Except a 
man be born of water and of the spirit he can not 
enter into the kingdom of God,' I beseech you to 
call upon God, the Father, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous goodness he will 
grant to this child, now to be baptized with water, 
that which by nature he can not have: that he may be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost, received into Christ's 
holy church, and be made a lively member of the same. 
Then shall the minister say: l Let us pray. 7 Almighty and 
everlasting God, we beseech thee for thine infinite mer- 
cies, that thou wilt look upon this child; wash him and 
sanctify him with the Holy Ghost that he being saved 
by thy grace, may be received into the ark of Christ's 
church, and being steadfast in faith, joyful through 
hope, and rooted in love, may pass the waves of this 
troublesome world, that finally he may come to the 
land of everlasting life, there to reign with thee, world 
without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
O merciful God, grant that the old Adam in this child 
may be so buried that the new man will be raised up in 
him. Amen. Grant that all carnal affection may die in 
him and that all things belonging to the spirit may live 



Baptismal Salvation. 125 

and grow in him. Amen. Grant that he may have power 
and strength to have victory, and to triumph against 
the devil, the world, and the flesh. Amen. Grant that 
whosoever is dedicated to thee by our office and min- 
istry may also be endued with heavenly virtues, and 
everlastingly rewarded through mercy. blessed Lord 
God, who dost live and govern all things, world with- 
out end. Amen. Almighty, everlasting G-od, whose 
most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, for the forgive- 
ness of our sins, did shed out of his most precious side 
both water and blood, and gave commandment to his 
disciples that they should go teach all nations, and 
baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost; regard, we beseech thee, 
the supplications of thy congregation ; and grant that 
this child, now to be baptized, may receive the fullness 
of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy 
faithful and elect children, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 11 If this prayer, which, as all prayers on 
occasions of baptizing, sets forth the doctrine of infant 
baptism as held by this people, does not teach that 
baptism regenerates, then language is certainly mis- 
leading. If it is not intended to teach that through 
baptism the child is renewed, then the prayer is mean- 
ingless, and is mockery. There can, in fact, be no 
grounds urged for the act, except that it brings the 
child into saved relations with God. It is not obedi- 
ence. That is the fruit of personal faith. The child 
has no such faith. He is not acting. Others are act- 
ing for him. The whole doctrine as practiced by 



126 The Church of Christ. 

pedobaptists is pregnant with the idea of regeneration 
by baptism. The Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran 
Church, art. ix, says: "Baptism is necessary to sal- 
vation, by (it) the grace of God is offered; and children 
are to be baptized, who by baptism, being offered to 
God, are received into God's favor." 

De. Philip Schaff has this to say of infant bap- 
tism in general: "Infant baptism came in quite natu- 
rally as the consequent of the belief of the necessity of 
baptism." Schaff-Herzog , Ency. of Bel. KnoivL, vol. i, 
p. 204. 

It is very clear that the practice of infant baptism 
commits those holding it to the doctrine of baptismal 
salvation. If it confers nothing, it is useless, not being 
obedience. If it confers anything it is regeneration. 
As to the Roman Catholic view, which was derived 
from the Fathers; i. e., The Epistle of Barnabas, 
the Shepherd of Hermas, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, it 
may be said: It contained at first three points, (a) 
The forgiveness of all existing sins, (b) The imparta- 
tion of the Holy Spirit and all his gifts and graces, 
(c) Immortal life. This is substantially the Roman 
Catholic view at this time. They hold that without 
baptism there can be no connection with the church, 
and without church membership there can be no sal- 
vation. 

Before passing to an investigation of the merits 
of the doctrine, let me quote one or two more eminent 
historians on the origin of the doctrine. George Wad- 
dington, an Episcopalian historian of great note, says 



Baptismal Salvation. 127 

of its origin: "The original simplicity of the office of 
baptism had early undergone some corruption. The 
symbol had been gradually exalted at the expense of 
the thing signified, and the spirit of the ceremony was 
beginning to be lost in its form. Hence a belief was 
gaining ground among the converts, that the act of 
baptism gave remissions of sins committed previously 
to it." Hist, of the Church, p. 37. With this agrees 
Neander: "But while, on the one hand, the doctrine 
of the corruption and guilt inherited by human nature, 
as the consequence of the first transgression, was re- 
duced into a more systematic and distinct form, which 
was particularly the case in the North African church 
(see below, in the history of the doctrines of Christian- 
ity) ; on the other hand, from want of proper distinc- 
tion, between the external and internal things of bap- 
tism (the baptism of water and the baptism of the 
spirit), the idea was forever gaining ground, and be- 
coming more firmly fixed, that without outward bap- 
tism no one could be freed from that inheritance — 
saved from the eternal punishment which threatened 
him, or brought to eternal happiness; and while the 
idea of the magic effects of the sacrament was con- 
stantly obtaining more and more sway, the theory of 
the unconditional necessity of infant baptism develop- 
ed itself from that idea." Hist. Three Centuries, p. 
199. 

It is not now a question with us as to whether in- 
fant baptism is scriptural or not. It is the question 
that the foundation idea of it is regeneration, and in 



128 The Church of Christ. 

this respect its advocates are to be placed side by side 
with those who practice adult baptism for the purpose 
of the remission of sins. Let us turn now to the word 
of God, and see if this doctrine is taught therein. 
"Remission of sins" is an expression that occurs but 
few times in the New Testament. Two times it is used 
in connection with the shedding of blood as the 
grounds of it. "For this is my blood of the covenant 
which is shed for many, unto remission of sins." Matt. 
26:28. "And according to the law, I may almost say, 
all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from the 
shedding of blood there is no remission." Heb. 9:22. 
Once it is spoken of in connection with blood as the 
grounds of it, and faith as the instrument by which it 
is appropriated. "Whom God hath set forth to be a 
propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his 
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 
through the forbearance of God." Rom. 3:25. Two 
times the phrase is used in connection with repentance. 
"And that repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name unto all nations, beginning from 
Jerusalem." Luke 24:47. "Repent ye, and be bap- 
tized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto 
the remission of sins." Acts 2:38. Three times is it 
spoken of in connection with the name of Jesus. Luke 
and Acts, as above, and again in Acts 10:43. "To 
him bear all the prophets witness, that through his 
name every one that believeth ,on him shall have re- 
mission of sins." Once only, is it used in connection 
with baptism. Acts 2:38, as above. This association 



Baftismal Salvation. 129 

of the term, "remission of sins," is not without its sig- 
nification. If any weight is to be given to the associa- 
tions of the term, then any of the expressions, blood, 
repentance, and faith, have stronger claims to be re- 
garded as procuring the remission of sins, than does 
baptism, and indeed we will find this even so. The 
question for consideration is: Does baptism contribute 
to the remission of sins to that extent that without it 
there can be no remission of sins or regeneration, as 
the advocates of the doctrine make it signify ? 

Remission may be defined: "The forgiveness or 
pardon, or giving up of the punishment due to crime, 
as the remission of sins." There must be some grounds 
upon which God can remit sins; grounds that are en- 
tirely satisfactory to the demands of his law which has 
been violated. 

This ground is in the blood of Christ. Said he, 
"For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is 
shed for many, unto the remission of sins." Matt. 
26:28. His blood, shed on the cross and offered in 
heaven, is accepted by the Father as satisfactory, 
hence he hath put forth Christ, "to be a propitiation 
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness 
for the remission of sins that are past, through the 
forbearance of God." Rom. 3:25. The facts taught 
are these : Shedding of blood is necessary to the remis- 
sion of sins. 

Blood is therefore the procuring cause. Faith ap- 
propriates the merits of the shed blood, by which God 
is propitiated; and the accepted righteousness brought 



130 The Church of Christ. 

in by the blood of Christ, is declared as justifying God 
in remitting the sins of the believer in Christ. Faith 
is therefore the condition, humanward, upon which 
sins are remitted. This is the teaching of God's word 
in both testaments. "The just shall live by faith.' ' 
Hab. 2:4. "The gospel of Christ is the power of God 
unto salvation, unto every one that believeth." Eom. 
1:16. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. 
Bikaioo, here translated justified, as in all other places 
n the New Testament, is the same word that is trans- 
lated "righteousness" in Rom. 3:25, and likewise in 
other passages. The term means to declare, respect, 
or regard as righteous. Hence, being regarded as 
righteous, through faith in his blood, we have peace 
with God through him, and access into the grace in 
which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of 
God. It is God who, as judge of his own law, declares 
that Christ's righteousness is accepted in our behalf, 
and himself reconciled to us through our acceptance, 
by faith, of that which he himself has accepted as sat- 
isfactory for our sins. This declaration restores to 
sonship of God, and consequently to peace and favor 
with him. Hence, the apostle says, "Therefore it is of 
faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise 
might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which 
is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith 
of Abraham, who is the father of us all." Rom. 
4:16. In no other way could salvation be made 
sure to any. It is worthy of remark, that the apostle 



Saptis?nal Salvation. 131 

teaches in this passage, as in Hebrews eleventh chapter 
and elsewhere, that God saves all alike. It is by faith 
both to those under the law, and to those without law. 
In Eph. 2:8, he further states the doctrine thus: "By 
grace have ye been saved through faith ; and that not 
of yourselves; it is the gift of God." And Peter, having 
been sent to the house of Cornelius, witnesses to him 
the voice of prophecy, as well as that of the gospel, 
saying: "To him give all the prophets witness, that 
through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall 
receive remission of sins." Acts 10:43. Thus we see 
that faith sustains a relation to the remission of sins 
that is vital; that of appropriating the benefits of 
Christ's righteousness brought in by the offering of his 
blood. Later on, we shall have occasion to speak of 
the nature of faith in sustaining this relation. 

An important inquiry at this point is, "What is 
the true relation of baptism to the remission of sins?" 
Is it antecedent, going before and making possible the 
remission of sins; or is it subsequent thereto, following 
after, and declaring the remission of sins? These ques- 
tions maybe best answered by carefully studying: 

First. The design of baptism. This may be 
stated in this way : It is a confession of faith in Christ 
as the Son of God, and the personal savior of the bap- 
tized. "For as many as have been baptized into 
Christ, have put on Christ." Gal. 3:27. That is, by 
baptism they have avowed themselves the disciples of 
Christ; have confessed him as their sovereign Lord, 
and have thereby engaged to walk in the truth flowing 



132 The Church of Christ. 

from him. The apostle brings out the thought in 
another place in this way: "Were ye baptized in the 
name of Paul? 77 I Cor. 1:13. That is to say: "Did 
you confess Paul in your baptism?" "What relation of 
Paul's life to you did your baptism embody?" "Was 
Paul crucified for you?" He would have them under- 
stand that their baptism confessed Christ, not himself. 
And again, "When they heard this they were bap- 
tized in the name of the Lord Jesus." Acts 19:5. The 
former baptism of the disciples connected with this 
transaction, did not confess Christ as a personal savior. 
They knew nothing of the Holy Spirit, and his rela- 
tions to the atonement. He had never witnessed the 
suffering Christ to their hearts as a personal savior, 
and hence they had not in their former baptism con- 
fessed him as such. But now, through the teaching of 
the apostle, the matter is made known to them, and 
they confess him by being baptized in his name. 

Second. A second element of the design of bap- 
tism is brought out in its monumental character. In 
this respect, it confesses death and life as having taken 
place in Christ, and forms the transition link from one 
to the other, in monument. "Know ye not, that so 
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were 
baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried 
with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was 
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we 
have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall 
be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Rom. 



Bafitis?nal Salvation. 133 

6:3-5. The doctrine that baptism is here represented 
as confessing, looks, first, toward the atonement of 
Christ as comprehended in the two elements of the 
same, namely, his death and his resurrection from the 
dead; and, secondly, as it looks humanward, it confesses 
death to sin, and resurrection to newness of life with 
him, through faith in the merits of his offering. Its 
language is, "He was delivered up for our trespasses, 
and was raised for our justification." Rom. 4:25. 
Thus it confesses two deaths, his and ours in him, 
both accomplished once unto sin; and two resurrec- 
tions, his and ours in him, and both with respect to 
newness of life. It thus embodies the atonement of 
Christ, the benefits of which have through faith been 
appropriated to the heart which has thereby become 
dead to sin and alive to God through him. It thus 
confesses the atonement of Christ as the cause from 
which flows the remission of sins, and assumes the 
obligations of the new life derived from him. It stands 
as the formal pledge of having closed with the former 
method of life, and as the beginning of the obliga- 
tion to walk in the new life with respect to Jesus Christ 
our Lord. It is thus with reference to the death of 
Christ that baptism is said to save us in figure. 
"The like figure whereunto even baptism doth 
also now save us" (not the putting away of the filth of 
the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward 
God) "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." I Pet. 
3:21. Clearly, the figure is of our salvation by the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was delivered up for 



134 The Church of Christ. 

our trespasses, and was raised from the dead for our 
justification, and not by baptism, which is here set 
forth as the figure of our salvation, by the resurrection 
of Jesus. The analogy may be stated in this way: 
Noah and his family were saved in the ark by water, 
and as the ark saved them by water, even so baptism 
saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Noah's salvation in the ark is called a figure ; and 
so our baptism is a figure, called the like figure. But 
how could the apostle call baptism a figure of salvation 
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, unless it embodied 
that fact? Not at all could he do this. And how 
could their baptism set forth the resurrection unless, 
first, their faith had grasped Christ as having shed his 
blood for the remission of sins, and having then been 
raised for their justification? Manifestly not at all. 
Their baptism then, as a figure, set forth a completed 
salvation by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism 
either saves literally, or else it only does so figuratively. 
The blood of Christ, shed for the remission of sins 
(Matt. 26:28) and applied through faith (Rom. 3:25), 
purges the conscience from dead works to serve the 
living God. Heb. 9:14. The conscience thus purged 
finds a fitting response, not in putting away the filth of 
the flesh, but in baptism which embodies the death of 
the old man and the life of the new man. It is not the 
seeking of a good conscience, but the declaration of it. 

Third. Baptism as a personal confession of faith 
in Christ has in it a symbolic element. This has 
already been hinted at but only as it stood inseparably 



Baptismal Salvation. 135 

associated with what has been said. Herein is its rela- 
tion to the remission of sins. "What is a symbol?" 
we may ask. And we will let Mr. A. Campbell answer: 
"All symbols may, indeed, be called signs of things, as 
words are signs of ideas. The symbol is to the thing 
intended what the word is to the idea." Christ. 
Restored, p. 73. The word does not create the idea, 
but simply furnishes the vehicle through which the 
idea seeks expression. Such is precisely the relation 
that baptism sustains to the remission of sins. It is, 
so to speak, the word that gathers up all the facts con- 
nected with the remission of sins, and gives intelligent 
expression to them. 

To get the matter clearly before us, let us state the 
question in this way: Baptism literally washes away 
sins, or else it only does so representatively, symbolically. 
The whole controversy about baptism being in order to 
the remission of sins, rests just here. If it does not liter- 
ally wash away sins, then the doctrine making it "in 
order to" is to be rejected as extra-scriptural. That 
the blood of Christ, applied through faith, literally 
remits sins, we think worth while to illustrate. Says 
the apostle: "Without shedding of blood there is no 
remission." Notice that sacrifice, involving blood, 
must be made as the grounds of remission. The law 
held that the soul that sinneth shall die, hence the law 
exacted life as the price of transgression. Either the 
guilty culprit must satisfy this demand, or one able to 
do so must become substitute for the guilty, and meet 
the demand for him. This Christ did when he offered 



136 The Church of Christ. 

the blood of the new covenant unto the remission of 
the sins of many. The offender accepts the substitu- 
tional sacrifice by faith in the merits of the blood of 
the offering as satisfying the inexorable claim of God's 
holy law. Said Paul of Christ, "Whom God hath set 
forth to be a mercy seat" (hilasterion here used means, 
in both Old and New Testaments, mercy seat, the 
appointed place in which God meets with the offender 
in the forgiveness or remission of his sins) " by his own 
blood, through the faith; for an exhibition of his 
righteousness in remitting the sins formerly committed, 
during the forbearance of God." Rom. 3:25. [Will- 
son's translation.] Pistiw, the word most generally 
translated faith, means to intrust with the care of; and 
in the case of the sinner believing on Christ it has the 
idea of apprehending Christ as a personal savior from 
sin, and in this character, intrusting the soul to him 
to be saved by him. The word is used in other con- 
nections which illustrate its meaning in this. "Unto 
them were committed [pistno~] the oracles of God." 
Rom. 3:2. That is, the Jews were intrusted with the 
oracles of God. "A dispensation of the gospel is com- 
mitted [pistuo'] unto me." I Cor. 9:17. The same 
idea is contained here. This is the meaning of faith 
as an exercise of the heart. It appropriates the blood 
of Christ, the redemptive price paid for the soul in 
bondage to sin (Eph. 1:7; Rev. 5:9), by intrusting 
itself to him. ■ Thus the conscience is purged from dead 
works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), the very first 
act of which service is baptism, which embodies the 



Baptismal Salvation. 137 

fact that has taken place, in the symbol, as the word 
embodies the idea. It is very clear that sins are liter- 
ally remitted through faith in the blood of Christ. 
Baptism confesses this fact. It therefore sustains a 
symbolic relation to the remission of sins. It is a sub- 
sequent, not an antecedent, relation. Let us now look 
into the strong passage urged against all this. ' 'Repent 
ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of 
Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins ; and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts 2:38. 
The argument, drawn from this passage, urges that 
baptism is antecedent to, and positively a condition 
without which there can be no forgiveness of sins. 
Two difficulties, at least, confront this view. (1) It 
must be shown that the only meaning of the Greek 
particle eis allowable here, is in order to. This can not 
be accomplished. The term is used about seventeen 
hundred times in the New Testament. I have before 
me H. T. Anderson's translation of the New Testament 
and I find he translated it "in order to" twenty times. 
In Willson's translation I find it translated in the same 
way five times, and in George Campbell's four times. 
When you remember that these men were all partial to 
the notion that baptism had something to do in pro- 
curing the forgiveness of sins it will aid you to under- 
stand that if in order to was the literal meaning of the 
term, they certainly would have found occasion to 
translate it by its literal meaning more than twenty- 
nine times, whereas they translate it otherwise more 
than five thousand times. The translation of these 



138 The Church of Christ. 

men forms the basis of Mr. Campbell's Living Oracles. 
King James translates it by perhaps some forty words 
and phrases, but not once by in order to. It is worth 
while to notice some passages in which the term has 
like associations. Take the commission to the church: 
"Baptizing them into — els — the name of the Father/' 
etc. No one would argue that this was to be done in order 
to. Its obvious meaning here is "with respect unto," 
as the thing signified. And again: "Know ye not that 
so many of us were baptized — eis — into Jesus Christ." 
Now, no one believes that we are baptized in order to 
Jesus Christ, but only with respect to Him. But the 
apostle proceeds with his statement "were baptized — 
eis — into his death. ' ' Nor does anyone believe that bap- 
tism is in order to the death of Christ. It has respect 
to the death to be sure, but it is only as it catches up 
his death, and embodies the same in the form of 
death." Therefore we are buried with him by bap- 
tism — eis — into death. ' ' Not that baptism is in order to 
death, but that it has reference to death as the thing 
represented. Many other passages might be cited, but 
these are quite sufficient to show that a very possible 
meaning of eis in our passage is, with respect to, as the 
thing signified. This meaning is quite commonly held 
by the lexicons, and is adopted by commentators in 
no few instances. A possible meaning of quite common 
use is sufficient for our purposes as to this passage. 

Second. The second difficulty confronting the 
position that eis literally means in order to in the pas- 
sage , is connected with the atonement. It subverts 



Baptis?nal Salvation. 139 

and undervalues the atonement by making baptism 
the aphesis of sins instead of Jesus Christ. The ques- 
tion may be stated in this manner: Is remission of 
sins due to the blood of Christ, or is it on account of 
baptism! 

It is urged, however, in favor of baptism for, or in 
order to, that Ananias said to Saul, " Arise, and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name 
of the Lord." Acts 22:16. One of two things only 
can be true here. Sins are literally washed away by 
baptism, or else only representatively so. If literally, 
then the water of baptism, and not the blood of Christ, 
is the real aphesis of sins. If only representatively, 
then the remission of sins is antecedent to the repre- 
sentation of the same. This we apprehend no one will 
dispute. Both this passage and Acts 2:38 teach the 
same fact. Both are representative, symbolic. 

Again it is urged that we are said to have been 
"baptized into Jesus Christ" and consequently into 
the benefits of his death. As in the other instance, 
but one of two things can be true here. The baptism 
into Christ is either literal, or else only representative. 
That it is literal no one will claim. Christ is a spirit- 
ual being; baptism is a physical act which can only 
outwardly represent our having inwardly been made to 
drink into Christ. Still again it is urged that we are 
said to have "put on Christ in baptism." The same 
reasoning as in the former cases applies here. No one 
ever literally put Christ on in baptism any more than 
have they literally eaten his flesh and drunk his blood 



140 The Church of Christ. 

in the supper. Both are representative of what takes 
place inwardly. 

Coming back to the passage, "Is Jesus Christ or 
the act of baptism the real aphesis of sins," we will 
let Mr. H. L. Anderson, a man who twice translated 
the New Testament, and who for almost forty years 
preached the doctrine of Mr. A. Campbell's reforma- 
tion, answer for us. In a letter written to Mr. Errett, 
and published in The Apostolic Times, Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, March 23, 1871, he says: "Here is a sharply 
defined difference. I have written it designedly. 
Acts 2:38 has not yet been interpreted. The words eis 
aphesin are connected with 'be baptized' and endless 
confusion has been the consequence. The form of 
words 'baptism for the remission of sins' is current 
among us, and is the cause of great misunderstanding. 
What is the sense of the words eis aphesin f Pardon 
me for saying that the form of words, 'baptism for the 
remission of sins,' is essentially Eomish. Now eis 
aphesin does not belong to 'be baptized' (Acts 2:38), 
but to Jesus Christ. I shall give you proof of this that 
will satisfy you. Go to any Hebrew scholar in your 
city and request him to look into the Hebrew of Lev. 
16:26. The word translated 'scapegoat' is azazel. 
Then take the Septuagint and read the same verse, the 
twenty-sixth, and you will find that the seventy have 
translated the Hebrew azazel which means 'scapegoat' 
by the words eis aphesin, the very words found in Acts 
2:38. Now, if the seventy rendered the Hebrew azazel, 
which means 'scapegoat,' by the words eis aphesin, then 



Baptismal Salvation. 141 

Peter must have known this, and he never could have 
intended to make baptism the 'scapegoat' that takes 
away sins. The mistake has been made by the church. 
It was not in Peter. * * *. Jesus shed his blood — eis 
aphesin — to take away sins, or as the removal of sins. 
With these facts before us we can translate Acts 2:38 
thus: 'Kepent and be baptized, each one of you, in 
the name of Jesus Christ as the scapegoat of your 
sins.' After substantiating his position with much 
proof he concludes: "No one believes in baptism for 
the remission of sins. This is true. Jesus is the 
pliilasmos and the apliesis; not baptism. I do there- 
fore reject the form of words, 'Baptism for the remis- 
sion of sins,' as unscriptural, and as teaching error, 
and causing misrepresentation. I adopt 'the blood of 
Jesus for the taking away of sins.' " 

Truly Jesus Christ is the eis aphesin of sins which 
are borne away by his blood. Baptism is the symbol 
of that fact, and thus, by it, we symbolically set forth 
Christ as having borne our sins in his own body on the 
tree. We see, therefore, that baptismal salvation is 
without foundation in the word of Grod. It is: 

(a) Post-scriptural; something originating after 
the close of the New Testament canon. 

(b) It is, as we have seen, extra-scriptural, not 
provided for in the word of Grod, and, therefore, to be 
rejected. 

(c) We have seen that the development of the 
doctrine furnished the occasion for bringing in infant 
baptism, which is based on the presumption of the 



142 The Church of Christ. 

regenerating powers supposed to attend the act of 
receiving baptism. 

(d) Incidentally, we have seen that the only gospel 
subject of baptism is the believer on Christ; the unbe- 
lieving, whether adults or infants, not being in a posi- 
tion to render obedience prompted by love. 

(e) We have discovered that the New Testament 
design of baptism is: A confession of faith in Christ 
as a personal savior from sin. 

It has been with the doctrine of baptismal salva- 
tion as with that of the episcopacy: When once 
adopted its advocates seek to find support for it in the 
word of God. But with this as with that, it is worthy 
of remark that those who hold the doctrine, whether in 
the form of adult or infant baptism, are themselves 
like the doctrine, both post-scriptural and extra-scrip- 
tural; coming into history far this side of the close of 
the canon of the scriptures, but seeking support from 
the scriptures. Now the abandonment of this doctrine 
would be the downfall of all those churches that teach 
that there can be no salvation where there is no bap- 
tism. Therefore it is the basal doctrine and the distin- 
guishing feature of all such. 

The question may be asked: "Are we under obli- 
gations to regard such as New Testament churches." 
Certainly not. That orgauization which depends for 
its existence upon a doctrine so purely unscriptural can 
lay no claim to be the church of Christ and ought not 
to expect to be regarded as such. It is not a question 
as to whether the members of such organizations are 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 143 

Christians are not. Happily, many of them are, and so 
long as they maintain Christian character and piety 
should be regarded as such. The members of a 
masonic lodge may be Christian men but that fact does 
not require that the lodge be regarded as a New Testa- 
ment assembly of saints. The notion that everything 
that calls itself a church must be regarded as the church 
of Christ grows out of this very doctrine of baptismal 
salvation. Its advocates presume that everything that 
is called baptism — from the sprinkling of an unconscious 
babe to the baptism of an adult by sprinkling, or pour- 
ing, or immersing — is really baptism, and has inducted 
the recipient into the church. 



CHAPTER III.— Continued. 

THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE CHURCH. 
III.— Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 

INFANT BAPTISM. 

HPHIS constitutes the third basal doctrine to which 
* we call attention. Like the episcopacy and bap- 
tismal salvation, it is held by the Eoman Catholic 
church and all the Protestant bodies whose genealogy 
is traceable through Rome, either directly or indirectly. 
Its fundamental idea is baptismal salvation, without 
which it represents absolutely nothing. Its advocates 



144 The Church of Christ. 

seek to find support for it in God's word. This is 
true, however, only of Protestant pedobaptists. The 
Roman Catholics support it by the traditions of the 
church. Holding, as they do, that the traditions of 
the church when delivered ex-cathedra are the infallible 
teachings of God, they can consistently support the 
doctrine by these ex-cathedra deliverances. But 
Protestant pedobaptists repudiating the infallibility of 
the pope, yet retaining the doctrines purely derived 
therefrom, are forced in the very nature of the case to 
seek a foundation for such in the word of God. Infant 
baptism has been the prolific cause of much bitter 
strife, and has resulted in the shedding of not a little 
blood in the annals of human history. It is not to be 
rejected, however, on this account, if it is to be found 
among the things which our Lord commanded His 
church to do. Let us then, 

1. Examine into its historic origin. De. Philip 
Schaff says: "Infant baptism came in quite 
naturally as the consequent of the belief in the neces- 
sity of baptism.'' Later on in the same article he re- 
marks: "The grounds for infant baptism were di- 
verse." And earlier still in the same article, speaking 
of the subjects of baptism in general, he has this to 
say : ' 'Church councils have decided these are : First. 
Only the living. The practice of baptizing the dead 
had sprung up among the later Montanists. Second. 
Only those who were born. The question is dis- 
cussed by Augustine, whether infants in the womb 
were fit subjects for baptism, and answered nega- 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 145 

tively (Ep. 187, chap. 10, sec. 32, seq.). The scholas- 
tic theology allows the baptism of partially born chil- 
dren, even where there is abnormal presentation ; al- 
though in the latter case, Thomas Aquinas taught, 
that, if the child survived, it should receive the hypo- 
thetical baptism spoken of below. Summa Theologica, 
Pars Tertia, Q. lxviii, art. n. Abortive and abnor- 
mal births are not to be baptized. Grown persons who 
are insane are to be baptized, if they shall ever desire 
it." Schaff-Rerzog , Religious Encyclopedia, vol. i, art. 
Baptism. Thus are the subjects of baptism defined by 
church councils. These are the hierarchy of which 
we have previously spoken. We notice in this defini- 
tion of the subjects of baptism, partially born chil- 
dren are included. Is there anything, we may ask, like 
this in the teachings of Christ and his apostles? We 
think not. It serves, however, to show how firmly the 
idea of baptismal salvation is affixed to infant baptism. 
Its origin is contemporaneous with the episcopacy. In 
fact it depends wholly upon that doctrine for its exist- 
ence. It is not the voluntary action of the child, but 
upon the contrary, the child is the forced subject of his 
parents or others, who are acting under the mandatory 
authority of the higher courts which have decided that 
lie must be baptized if he would be saved. Mr. Or- 
chard says, of its early history in the east: "Tertul- 
lian was inquired of, by a rich lady named Quintilla, 
who lived at Pepuza, a town in Phrygia, whether 
infants might be baptized on condition they ashed to 
he baptized, and produced sponsors." 

10 



146 The Church of Christ. 

In reply to Quintilla, Tertullian observes, "That 
baptism ought not to be administered rashly, the 
administrators of it know. Give to him that asketh. 
Every one hath a right, as if it were a matter of alms. 
Yea, rather say, give not that which is holy to the 
dogs, cast not your pearls before swine, lay hands sud- 
denly on no man, be partakers of no man's sins. If 
Philip baptized the eunuch on the spot, let us remem- 
ber that it was done under the immediate direction of 
the Lord. * * * The eunuch was a believer of 
scriptures, the instruction given by Philip was season- 
able; the one preached, the other perceived the Lord 
Jesus, and believed on him; water was at hand, and 
the apostle having finished the affair was caught away. 
But Paul, you say, was baptized instantly; true, be- 
cause Judas, in whose house he was, instantly knew he 
was a vessel of mercy. The condescension of God 
may confer his favors as he pleases, but our wishes 
may mislead ourselves and others. It is therefore 
most expedient to defer baptism, and to regulate 
the administration of it according to the condition, 
the disposition, and the age of the person to be bap- 
tized ; and especially in the case of little ones. What 
necessity is there to expose sponsors to danger? Death 
may incapacitate them for fulfilling their engage- 
ments, or bad dispositions may defeat all their en- 
deavors. Jesus Christ said indeed, hinder them not, 
etc., but that they should come to him as soon as they 
are advanced in years, as soon as they have learnt 
their religion, when they may know whither they are 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 147 

going, when they become Christians, when they begin 
to know Jesus Christ. What is there that should com- 
pel this innocent age to receive baptism? And since 
they are not allowed the disposal of temporal goods, is 
it reasonable that they should be intrusted with the 
concerns of heaven? They just know how to ask for 
salvation, that you may seem to give to him that 
asketh. Such as understand the importance of bap- 
tism are more afraid of presumption than procrastina- 
tion, and faith alone saves the soul." Orchard? s 
History of Foreign Baptist, vol. i, pp. 69, 70, 71. 
This transaction took place about A. D. 215, and 
is the first recorded history concerning the baptism 
of children. Mr. Robinson has shown in his work, 
History of Baptists, that the terms, infants, little 
ones, etc., at this period meant simply minors, those 
under age by law, as is clearly the reference that 
is in the mind of Tertullian in the above, where 
he says: "And since they are not allowed to dispose 
of temporal goods." The narrative teaches two 
things : 

First. Was it proper to baptize such as were old 
enough to ask for it? And, 

Second. It was not needful to be in a rush about 
baptizing even these. This is in harmony with the gen- 
eral history of this period. They were kept in the state 
of catechumens, and instructed in the things of religion 
till mature enough to confess faith in Christ. Yet the 
tendency was strongly toward allowing infants to be 
baptized. It was left for later times to require it. 



148 The Church of Christ. 

Origin, who was born about 185, and died 254, was 
perhaps the greatest advocate of the doctrine during 
the antenicene period. Neander says of him : l ' Origin, 
in whose system infant baptism stood very high, though 
not in the same point of view as the North African 
church, declares that it is an apostolic tradition — a dec- 
laration which can not, in that century, be considered of 
any great weight because men were at that time so much 
inclined to deduce the ordinances, which they thought of 
importance, from the apostles; and, besides this, there 
were many partition walls between this and the apos- 
tolic age, which prevented a free insight into that age." 
History Three First Centuries, page 200. It is worth 
while to note, that even Origin, the greatest advocate 
of the doctrine at this early age, only defended it on the 
grounds, of tradition. It was not yet sufficiently grafted 
onto the cause of Christianity to seek positive support 
from the word of God. It had not as yet been enacted 
by a church council assuming to have authority in de- 
fining Christian doctrines. 

Perhaps the most condensed statement of the rise 
of infant baptism is that of Jerom Piescarski, before 
the synod of Brest, 1558. 

As reported by Mr. Robinson, he says: "He 
then came to baptism, and affirmed that infant bap- 
tism had no place in the scriptures ; that in the two 
first centuries it was not mentioned ; that it rose in 
Africa in the third century, and was opposed by Ter- 
tullian; that the first canons to enjoin it were made 
at a council at Mela, in Africa, in the year four hun- 



Infant £afitis?n Not of the Scriptures. 149 

dred and eighteen ; that infant communion came in at 
the same time; that before this, people were put in the 
state of catechumens, and instructed in the Christian 
faith ; that then they were examined concerning their 
faith, and, on confessing it, were baptized by immer- 
sion; that in the fourth and fifth centuries, while papal 
power continued feeble, though increasing, the children 
of believers, even "those of bishops, were not baptized 
till they were adults, and some, as Ambrose, not till 
they had been elected and were going to accept the 
office of bishops ; and that some deferred it till they 
were just ready to die." Bob.'s JEccl. Res., page 579. 
Ambkose was born at Treves, 340, and died at Milan, 
397. About 370, at the age of 30, he was appointed 
consular prefect at Liguria and Emilia. At the death 
of Auxentius, in 374, a fierce contest arose over the 
election of the new bishop. In the interest of peace, 
as first magistrate he repaired to the church to main- 
tain order. While here addressing a crowd, a child 
cried out, "Ambrosius episcopous." This was enough, 
he was elected bishop. Though thirty-four years old, 
he was still a catechumen. He was immediately bap- 
tized and assumed the office of bishop. This was no 
uncommon occurrence, so far as it relates to deferring 
baptism. It was thought that baptism saved and it 
was best to defer it till near the end of life if possible. 
Infant baptism stands inseparably associated with 
popish usurpation, and if left to stand on its own 
merits, with no longer any prelatical court to enforce 
it on the consciences of parents by mandatory author- 



15 O The Church of Christ. 

ity, it would soon perish for want of internal life- 
Believers' baptism will live on, because he that believ- 
eth is drawn on to obedience by the living Christ in 
him. There is living, drawing power in this instance; 
while in the other there is dead form forced on an 
unconscious subject by a court clearly without founda- 
tion in the word of God. De. John Gill in speaking 
of the inseparable connection of infant baptism with 
popery has this to say: "The two are, in fact, indis- 
solubly united — one in their origin, their growth, and 
their results. The same mother heresy — baptismal 
regeneration — which gave birth to popery, gave birth 
to infant baptism. They were engendered in the same 
dark womb of ignorance and superstition. They came 
forth together. They grew up together. Together 
they overspread the nations. And together shall they 
disappear before the light of Christ's gospel, and the 
brightness of his coming." Pillar of Popery, page 42. 

It is time now to examine into the enactments of 
some of the councils of this early period of develop- 
ment. "The council of Elvira or Granada, A. D. 
305, enjoines a delay of baptism, if the catechumeni 
act worldly *, also adultery and intermarriages should be 
checked, and ministers of religion should not have 
strange women with them." 

"The council of Laodicea, A. D. 365, required 
notice from the persons who intended to be baptized, 
and resolved all should be instructed before they 
should receive it; and determined that the baptized 
should rehearse the articles of the creed." "The 



Infant Baftism Not of the Scriptures. 151 

council of Constantinople, A. D. 384, decreed that 
certain persons should remain a long time under 
scriptural instructions before they receive baptism. " 

"The council of Carthage, A. D. 397, in canon 
thirty- four, declares that sick persons shall be baptized, 
who can not answer any longer, when those who are 
by them testify that they desire it." This brings 
us to the council at Mela, in Afeica, A. D. 418, a 
moment ago referred to, at which infant baptism was 
first enjoined. When once enacted by the church 
councils, it became obligatory, and whether parents 
wished to or not, they must now have their children bap- 
tized. J. Newton Brown gives expression to the char- 
acter of infant baptism from the time it was canonized, 
thus: "Infant baptism is an error from beginning to 
end; corrupt in theory, and corrupting in practice; 
born in superstition, cradled in fear, nursed in igno- 
rance, supported by fraud, and spread by force ; doomed 
to die in the light of historical investigation, and its 
very memory to be loathed in all future ages by a dis- 
abused church. In the realms of despotism, it has 
shed the blood of martyrs in torrents ; that blood cries 
against it to heaven ; and a long-suffering God will yet 
be the terrible avenger. The book before us is a swift 
witness against it." Baptist Martyrs, page 13. 

Thus we discover that infant baptism is clearly 
post-scriptural in its origin. The Roman Catholic 
church is content, and has been during the whole his- 
tory of the doctrine, to practice it on the authority of 
tradition ex-cathedra. But when the reformation of the 



152 The Church of Christ. 

sixteenth century came on, and its leaders threw off the 
supremacy of the pope, it became necessary in order 
to retain the doctrine, to seek support for it in the 
scriptures. It would not be wise to protest against 
Borne, and yet hold and practice doctrines of purely 
Komish origin, without seeking to make them credi- 
ble by scripture sanction. And more; the reformers 
had themselves been baptized in infancy, and the doc- 
trine had become venerated by them as a part of their 
religious habiliment, and was on that account difficult 
to throw off. Besides, to throw it off would leave them- 
selves unbaptized, and therefore not church members, 
and would thus leave them unqualified to baptize others. 
We may suppose indeed that the strongest grounds for 
the maintenance of the practice at this time, grows: 

First. Out of veneration. Age makes a thing 
right with many people. Sin is one of the most aged 
things in the world, yet it is the source of all our 
troubles here, and will be so to the lost throughout 
eternity. It is not to be venerated because it is old. 

Second. The practice is maintained through fear, 
fear that the infant will be forever lost should it die 
without having been baptized. Take away from it the 
idea, that in some mystical way it saves the soul, and 
it will soon cease for want of subjects. This is its life, 
without which it is dead form. 

2. Protestant pedobaptists seek to find sup- 
port for infant baptism iE the scriptures. Many of 
the arguments resorted to to prove the right from the 
scriptures are purely plays on human sympathy, and 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 153 

deserve no notice at our hands. Duty rests not on 
such a shallow basis. Where God leads by command 
or example it is safe to tread, but when both are lack- 
ing, it is wise to stand in awful silence. In this 
instance there is a conspicuous absence of both. If 
the rite is vested with the importance claimed for 
it by its advocates, then there ought to be some unmis- 
takable authority for it in God's word. But that there 
is none we apprehend will appear obvious by examin- 
ing into the grounds upon which its advocates seek to 
support it. These are: 

First. The general command to baptize all na- 
tions. This, it is held, may naturally be interpreted to 
include infants. It is quite true that we have no word 
in English that fully conveys the idea of "matheteu- 
sate" the Greek word used in the commission, but 
scholars in general agree that either one of three Eng- 
lish words conveys quite accurately its idea ; namely, 
teach, make disciples of, make Christians of. 

One thing is quite certain, and that is, whatever 
the word means — and that can not be less than is the 
meaning of any one of these English terms — that much 
is to go before the baptizing. To this agrees the voice 
of God's word in general. Baptism in the name of the 
persons in the Trinity, looks to them as having provid- 
ed and bestowed a completed salvation. This requires 
knowledge of God. But knowledge of God in this respect 
can only be had by teaching. Therefore teaching is 
antecedent to baptism, which is indeed the embodiment 
of teaching in action. Our pedobaptist friends seek to 



154 The Church of Christ. 

support their interpretation by the following examples. 
They tell us that the baptism of the three thousand on 
the day of Pentecost presuppose the presence of in- 
fants among the number. An analysis of the proceed- 
ings on this occasion shows the following facts: (a.) 
Peter preached. (&.) The people heard and cried out 
inquiringly, (c.) Peter told them to repent and be 
baptized, and exhorted them further, (d.) Then 
they that received his word were baptized, (e.) And 
the number added was about three thousand. One 
thing is certain, those added were baptized, and those 
baptized received the words spoken by Peter. To 
make the narrative mean more than this, is to force 
out of it that which the Holy Spirit has not put into it. 
No one who was not seeking support for a cause that 
was without plain example, would, we may presume, 
ever resort to this passage for proof of its existence in 
the scriptures. But we are told that the mention of 
five household baptisms, where the presence of chil- 
dren in some of them is far more probable than their 
absence in all of them, makes a strong probability, to 
say the least, that infants were baptized by the apos- 
tles. The first of these is the house of Cornelius, in 
Acts, tenth chapter. 

The narrative, beginning at verse 43, shows the fol- 
io wing facts : ( a. ) Peter testified to the fact of proph- 
ecy, that the believer into him — pisteuonta eis auton — 
should receive remission of sins, (b.) At this the 
Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word, (c.) 
Those on whom he was poured out spake with 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 155 

tongues and magnified Grod. (d. ) Then answered 
Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should 
not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost 
as well as we? (e.) Then they were baptized. (/.) 
Then they desired Peter to tarry certain days. Noth- 
ing in this narrative that even affords a presumption 
for the practice. 

The case of Lydia (Acts 16:13-15) is brought for- 
ward as a presumption in favor of the practice. And 
indeed it is only a presumption. There is nothing in 
the narrative nor elsewhere in history, to show that 
Lydia was a married woman even. She was away 
from her home, Thyatira, engaged in selling purple. 
She doubtless had servants who would be reckoned as a 
part of her household. Oikos, the word used, had 
that meaning. Besides, the narrative states that the 
gathering by the river was made up of women. This 
is agreeable with the idea that her household con- 
tained her servants, and that these were women as 
would be natural. The facts are strongly against the 
presumption of the presence of infants in this case. 
The next case is that of the Philippian jailer in this 
same chapter of Acts. The facts in this case, begin- 
ning at verse 30, are as follows: (a.) The jailer 
asked Paul and Silas what to do to be saved, (b.) 
They enjoin faith on the Lord Jesus, (c.) They 
spake the word of the Lord unto him, and to all that 
were in his house, (d.) The jailer washed the stripes 
of Paul and Silas, and was baptized, with all his, im- 
mediately, (e.) The jailer brought Paul and Silas 



156 The Church of Christ. 

into his house, set meat before them, and rejoiced 
greatly with all his house, having believed in God. 
All believed, all rejoiced, all were baptized. No traces 
of the baptism of unconscious, unbelieving infants in 
the entire narrative. The next case is that of Steph- 
anas, twice mentioned. The apostle says: "And I 
baptized also the household of Stephanas." I Cor. 
1:16. Paul is at Corinth, the place where this house- 
hold baptism occurred, first in A. D. 52 and 53. He 
writes the first letter to the church at Corinth from 
Ephesus, in the springtime of A. D. 57. At the most 
not more than five years could have elapsed since he 
baptized the household of Stephanas. Before clos- 
ing this first letter, he had occasion to mention this 
household once again. It is in this wise: "Now I 
beseech you, brethren (ye know the house of Steph- 
anas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they 
have set themselves to minister unto the saints), that 
ye also be in subjection unto such, and to every one 
that helpeth in the work andlaboreth." I Cor. 16:15, 
16. Those who were baptized in this household had 
grown sufficiently mature in five years to minister unto 
the saints, so it is certain they were not unconscious 
babes at the time of their baptism. A practice for 
which so much importance is claimed, as that of 
infant baptism, ought to have more sure scriptural 
support than can be found in these narratives before 
it demands that any one should regard it as of divine 
appointment. There is scarcely a presumption in its 
favor in any one of them. 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 157 

Second. Pedobaptists base it on Christ's treat- 
ment of little children also. They say, Christ pro- 
nounced them members of his kingdom. Why, then, 
should they not also be fit to bear the sign and seal of 
such membership? All baptism is in idea an infant 
baptism, and requires us to begin life anew in a truly 
childlike spirit, without which no one can enter into 
the kingdom of God. This whole argument rests on the 
presumption that the infant is in a state of regenera- 
tion which, however, is not the case. If not, how may 
the infant receive the "sign" or "seal" — as they call it 
— of that which it does not have? < Christ said: "Ex- 
cept a man be born anew, he can not see the kingdom 
of G-od." John 3:3. And Paul declares, "that by 
nature — natural birth — all are alike the children of 
wrath." Eph. 2:1, ff. How, then, are those dyingin 
infancy saved? We answer, in this: Infants had no 
will to consult with respect to the penalty arising from 
the sin of Adam, yet they endure the penalty in all its 
parts; and, just so with respect to the blessings of life 
operating in Christ, the second Adam. Having no 
wills to consult with respect to its operations, they pass 
to a participation with Christ in the blessings of his 
righteousness; not, it is true, without regeneration, 
but through regeneration effected for them by the 
Holy Spirit. There is nothing in Christ's blessing lit- 
tle children upon which to found a positive ordinance ; 
and that Christian ordinance which is forced to seek 
support here, is confessedly, by this very fact, without 
command or example in the New Testament, and ought 
therefore to be rejected. 



158 The Church of Christ. 

Third. Protestant 'pedobaptists base infant bap- 
tism on the analogy of circumcision which began with 
adult Abraham, and then extended to all his male 
children. They say: " Baptism is the initiatory rite 
of introduction into the Christian church, and the sign 
and seal of the new covenant, as circumcision was 
the sign and seal of the old covenant. The bless- 
ings of the old covenant was to the seed as well as to 
the parents; and the blessings of the new covenant 
can not be less comprehensive. Infant baptism rests 
upon the organic relation of Christian parents and 
children. It is a constant testimony to the living faith of 
the church, which descends, not as an heirloom, but 
as a vital force, from parent to child." Dk. Phillip 
Schaff. In this statement of the grounds of the rite 
by this eminent Presbyterian divine, we notice several 
things : 

First. An admission that it is not commanded, 
but simply implied. That as circumcision began with 
adult Abraham, so in the analogy Christian baptism 
began with adult believers. 

Second. That as circumcision was a sign and seal 
to the seed of the old covenant, so infant baptism is 
a sign and seal to the seed (meaning children of 
Christian parents) of the new covenant. The difficulty 
with the analogy is: (a) That children of Christian 
parents are not reckoned as among the seed of the new 
covenant, unless they are believers on Christ. Christ 
took hold of the seed of Abraham. Heb. 2:16. But 
who are these? Those to whom, as believing, Abraham 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 159 

stands as father. The apostle says, in this respect he 
is the father of us all. Rom. 4:16. None are reckoned 
in the new covenant except believers. But here the 
analogy breaks down. If they are not to be reckoned 
except they believe, then admitting that baptism is 
the sign and seal, they are not entitled to it till 
reckoned. This is all we ask. The infant does, not 
believe, therefore not entitled to the sign and seal. 
(b) But baptism is not the sign and seal of the 
new covenant, nor is it the antitype of circumcision. 
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither 
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but 
he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision 
is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter; 
whose praise is not of men, but of Grod." Rom. 
2:28, 29. Regeneration is circumcision of the heart, 
and therefore the antitype of that of the flesh. But this 
takes place only in the believing. u In whom, having 
also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of 
promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance. " Eph. 
1:13, 14. This is the seal of the new covenant, and 
is that which entitles to the inheritance of which it is 
the earnest. Here again the analogy breaks down, and 
in so doing, grants all we ask ; namely, regeneration as 
the condition of being reckoned in the new covenant, 
reckoned as having been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and 
not by infant baptism. 

Third. That, therefore, infant baptism rests on 
the organic relation of Christian parents and children. 
Strange to say, this conclusion is based on one single 



160 The Church of Christ. 

passage : ' ' For the unbelieving husband is sanctified 
in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in 
the husband; else were your children unclean, but 
now are they holy." I Cor. 7:14. There are several 
things which this passage does not teach, but which 
are necessary to the pedobaptist use of it. (a) It 
does not teach that the fact that one companion is 
saved will save the other. ( b ) Nor does it teach that 
the offspring of Christian parents is born in a saved, 
a regenerated, state. That which is born — generated — of 
flesh is flesh ; and that which is born — generated — of the 
spirit is spirit. These two facts it must teach in order 
to support the use made of it. What, then, does it 
teach! The apostle is speaking of husband and wife 
separating. He finds no cause for a Christian com- 
panion to depart from one who is not a Christian. To 
remain together is not against the law of the gospel. 
The relation is sanctified. It is not living in adultery. 
Your children will not be unclean; that is, bastards, 
as if begotten in adultery, but will be clean, holy, 
begotten in the bonds of lawful wedlock. 

This is the meaning of the passage, and nothing 
more. We see, therefore, how feeble the grounds 
upon which the rite is based. We desire to conclude 
our remarks on this part of the argument by adding 
the testimony of a few eminent pedobaptists against 
the notion that it is derived from any of these sources. 

Luthek says: "Young children hear not nor 
understand the word of God, out of which faith 
cometh, and, therefore, if the command be followed, 



Infa,7zt Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 161 

children ought not to be baptized. Pope Innocent it was 
that determined their baptism." In Postill. 

Calvin (in Instit., b. 4, c. 16) says: "It is no- 
where expressly mentioned by the evangelists that any 
one child was by the apostles' hands baptized." And 
on Matt. 28:19, he observes: " Christ requires teach- 
ing before baptism, and will have believers only 
admitted to baptism; baptism does not seem to be 
rightly administered except faith precedes it." 

Zuinglius. Book on sedition: "It is nowhere 
commanded." 

Ekasmus. Paraphrase of Matt. 28:19: "Where 
you have taught them the word of God, if they believe 
you and receive it, if they begin to repent themselves 
of their former life, and are ready and willing to em- 
brace the doctrine of the gospel, then let them be 
baptized with water." 

Beza : ' ' That to permit all children to be baptized 
was unheard of in the primitive church, whereas every 
one ought to be instructed in the faith before he was 
admitted to baptism." On I Cor. 7:14. 

Assembly of Divines: "And entered into the 
house of Lydia; doubtless to confirm them in the 
faith which they had preached to them — Lydia and 
hers hearing of their miraculous deliverance could 
not but be comforted and confirmed in the truth." 

Baxter: "His house would not be saved for his 

faith, without any of their own." Acts 16:31. "They 

instructed him and his household, that they might 

indeed believe and be saved." (On v. 32.) "He and 
li 



162 The Church of Christ. 

all his house were presently baptized, as having pro- 
fessed their resolved faith in Christ." (On v. 33.) 

De. A. Baenes: "Salvation was offered to his 
family as well as himself; implying that if they 
believed they should also be saved. To all that were 
in his house. Old and young. They instructed them 
in the doctrines of religion, and doubtless in the nature 
of the ordinances of the gospel." Com. on Acts 
16:31, 32. 

De. A. L. Bledsoe, LL. D. (Methodist), Ed. 
Southern Review. u It is an article of our faith, that 
; the baptism of young children [infants] is in any- 
wise to be retained in the church, as most agreeable to 
the institutions of Christ. 1 But yet, with all our search- 
ing we have been unable to find, in the New Testa- 
ment, a single express declaration or word, in favor of 
infant baptism. We justify the right, therefore, 
solely on the ground of logical inference, and not on 
any express word of Christ or his apostles. This may, 
perhaps, be deemed by some of our readers a strange 
position for a pedobaptist. It is by no means, however, 
a singular opinion. Hundreds of learned pedobaptists 
have come to the same conclusion, especially since the 
New Testament has been subjected to a closer, more 
conscientious, and more candid exegesis than was 
formerly practiced by controversialists." It is not 
needful to multiply witnesses. These are sufficient. 
Without question, infant baptism is post-scriptural, 
and therefore extra-scriptural, and binding on no one. 

3. Infant baptism at variance with the word of 
God. Appropriating a suggestive outline, laid down 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 163 

by Mr. Orchard (Hist, of Forn. Bap., vol. n, pp. 
75, 80) ? we shall now demonstrate the above proposi- 
tion to be unquestionably true. 

First. Every pedobaptist community is at vari- 
ance with the New Testament records. In suppressing 
all scriptural address to candidates. " Bring forth, 
therefore, fruit worthy of repentance." Matt. 3:8. 
" Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the 
name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins." 
Acts 2:38. "Arise and be baptized, and wash away 
thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Acts 
22:16. In dispensing with conscience in an enjoined 
act of service. "But the interrogation of a good con- 
science toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ." I Pet. 3:21. In changing the subject from 
that which formed the first churches. "And believers 
were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of 
men and women." Acts 5:14. "And when they 
believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the 
kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they 
were baptized, both men and women." Acts 8:12. In 
an absence of all choice and obedience in the candi- 
dates. "But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected 
for themselves the counsel of God, being not baptized 
of him." Luke 7:30. In setting aside faith, repent- 
ance, and love in professed acts of worship. "And 
without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto 
him." Heb. 11:6. "And whatsoever is not of faith 
is sin." Rom. 14:23. In separating the ordinance from 
obedience and profession. " For ye are all the sons of 



164 The Church of Christ. 

God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of 
you' as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. " 
Gal. 3:26, 27. In the spirit required of those admitted 
to the ordinance. "For in one spirit were we all bap- 
tized into one' body. " I Cor. 12:13. In the characters 
of those upon whom the rite is conferred. "And were 
by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Eph. 
2:3. In destroying the unity of Christ's appointment. 
"There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are 
called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, 
one baptism." Eph. 4:4, 5. 

. In all the above regards, infant baptism is violently 
against the word of God. Of one thing we may at all 
times be quite sure: God can not be the author of 
anything that is opposed to any principle or fact of 
his [word. "In thus practicing things not enjoined, 
pedobaptists practically demonstrate that the word 
of Christ is not a perfect rule of faith and practice." 

Second. "The perversion of the ordinance of bap- 
tism with the change of the subject has involved the 
order 'and objects of God's house in mystery, which 
will always require a learned priesthood to explain to 
the ignorant and believers; since a departure from 
plain precepts, and the substitution of human rites, 
will, like the heathen mysteries, ever require learned 
individuals to expound them." What average Chris- 
tian parent, we may ask, if left to her own resources 
to determine her duty in this respect, from the laby- 
rinth of theories advanced in support of the practice, 
would ever reach a conclusion in the matter? Verily, 



Infant Baptism Not of the Scriptures. 165 

the child would be grown up before the mother could 
determine her duty in the matter. On the other hand, 
the gospel subject of baptism is not determined by any 
theory, but by plain statement of the scriptures. " He 
that believeth and is baptized/' 

Third. "The subversion of the ordinance has 
been attended with a loss of principle. Principle must 
ever be viewed as a vital part of the New Testament 
religion. A conviction of the truth of Christianity, 
and a professed submission to its author, is a reason- 
able course, and consequent effect of an active motive 
of a rational being or responsible agent ; such a pro- 
ceeding is calculated to prove and decide its real 
converts, and the superiority of its pretensions to every 
superstition. But pedobaptism has inverted and 
subverted the scriptural and reasonable order of this 
sublime economy, and destroyed the distinguishing 
principle (conviction of the truth or love of holiness) 
that obtained it early credit, which principle gave also 
proof of its divine origin. The innovating system 
having supplanted choice, and dispensed with convic- 
tion and voluntary obedience altogether; the motive and 
principle of gospel submission (II Cor. 5:14, and 8:12) 
are abandoned and lost by infant baptism.' 7 

Fourth. "The change has been attended with a 
loss of evidence to the truth of Christianity. When 
there was no revelation to guide mankind, Grod was 
not without his witnesses in the obedience of his peo- 
ple; and at after periods his church witnessed with 
his word. Isa. 43:10. These two were to establish 



166 The Church of Christ. 

a concurring testimony for God. Isa. 40:12. The 
truths of Christianity are read and better under- 
stood by the world, in the conduct of his disciples, 
than in the volume of inspiration, and Christ requires 
his people to illustrate every precept in their deport- 
ment. Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 3:2-15. What part of 
the conduct of pedobaptists has reference to Rom. 
6:1-4; Gal. 3:27; I Cor. 12:13; Heb. 10:22; I Pet. 
3 : 21? Such scriptures were illustrated in the obedience 
of the first disciples, but by pagan rites they have made 
void these divine words. Pedobaptism has destroyed 
the distinguishing evidences of Christianity by general- 
izing the profession ; so it has obscured the heavenly 
principle (John 13:35) and supplanted its precepts 
(Mark. 7:9), by conferring its badge on the profane; 
by adopting irresponsible beings, irrational, uncon- 
scious subjects into a spiritual economy; it has anni- 
hilated the visible boundary of the church. By this 
practice the early line of separation is removed, while 
the custom has aimed to blend the wicked with the 
righteous, unaccountable with responsible agents, the 
world and the church, natural with spiritual beings, 
darkness and light, Belial with Christ, hellish subjects 
with heavenly children; but in reality pedobaptism 
has only united natural to natural subjects, until the 
whole mass is become a cage of every foul and hateful 
creature (Rev. 18:2), yet this cage of creatures is still 
called the spouse of Christ." The reader is asked to 
carefully read the passages in this connection. 

Fifth. "Pedobaptism has in every age propa- 
gated a falsehood. The approbation of God has in 



Infant Baptisin Not of the Scriptures. 167 

every age accompanied believers' immersion (Luke 
3:21; Acts 8:38), baptism conferred, under the be- 
lief of a resulting benefit or advantage, i. e., the 
inward approval of Christ (Acts 8:39; I Pet. 3:21). 
When, therefore, ignorant men transferred the cere- 
mony to infants, and asserted they realized the same 
scriptural conformity as the believers, such conduct 
and practice deduced and propagated an untruth. If 
no such supposed benefit attended the rite, the custom 
would fail among the illiterate ; but its advocates con- 
fer a living name on a dead subject, a spiritual rite on 
an animal being; the custom asserts the candidate to 
be a friend, when God declares it to be an enemy; it 
implies a reconciled position when the word states it to 
be hostile ; it professedly declares the creature renewed, 
while it retains all the evil properties of fallen man. 
The infant is said to be holy, and, therefore, suited to 
the ordinance, when the scriptures declare it unholy. 
Its holy connection is said to be its qualification for the 
rite, and yet the Arriet waters are to wash away its 
filth. The child is said to be a subject of promise, 
when scripture says children of the flesh are not of the 
promise. Baptism is said to put them into the cove- 
nant, when faith only entitles believers to the privilege ; 
also makes infants subjects of the kingdom of heaven, 
when they are declared to be such, without water. 
The rite is declared to unite the members with the 
head^inseparably, and to place them in an indissoluble 
covenant ; yet these adopted members prove afterward 
by their lives and actions, that falsehood attended the 



168 The Church of Christ. 

ceremony. Since those who, by the rite, were called 
children of God are found, by practice and scriptural 
expression, to have been all along children of wrath. 
Infant baptism, in representing a benefit conferred 
and an inward change effected, is a suitable accompani- 
ment to transubstantiation; they have both propa- 
gated a falsehood in the name of Christ among the 
people. Here is spiritual wickedness in high places ; 
here is professedly an act of worship with a lie in the 
right hand. The evils of the system thus become 
evident, and consequences prove that pedobaptism 
involves its advocates in contradictions — that a loss of 
principle is sustained, and falsehood is propagated. 
Instead of pedobaptism giving aid to truth, it has 
injured it, obscured it, supplanted it, since it has 
borrowed the form of sound words, and professedly 
conferred a spiritual rite on an enemy and alien to 
spiritual blessings. The custom assumes that men are 
born Christians, and not made so. Pedobaptism has 
been practiced most by those least acquainted with 
spiritual things, and succeeds best when truth stag- 
nates. The sign of Christianity has been, and still is, 
conferred on those as members of Christ whose con- 
duct proves them ignorant, beastly, blasphemous, 
debaucherous ; many of whom justice, for the preserv- 
ing of order in society, has assigned to the gallows, 
were, by infant baptism, made children of God and 
inheritors of the kingdom of heaven! I !" 

Sixth. The custom of infant baptism has accom- 
panied an entire perversion of Christianity. We said 



Infant Bafitis7?i Not of the Scriptures. 169 

there was a perversion of the ordinance and a sup- 
planting of the subject. A loss of principle, a loss of 
evidence, and the propagation of a falsehood. These 
have led to the subversion of the religion of Christ in 
the world. Baptism is a ceremony. Ceremonies in 
religion are founded, not on moral, but positive law. It 
is the expressed will of the sovereign, enforced for a 
specific purpose and end. There is no law to baptize 
infants in either Testament, so that Judaism gives no 
shadow of support to such practice. Infants are mere 
machines, and utterly incapable of showing every 
requisite to Christian baptism. The rite subverts 
the very base of the Christian church, by giving those 
the name who have not the principle; and by transfer- 
ring the whole cause of Christianity from the wise and 
pious few to the ignorant and wicked multitude, who 
suppose themselves Christians, interfere in religion, 
derange the community, invade the offices, and convert 
the whole into a worldly corporation. The reverse of 
Christianity ensues, the monopolizing body becomes 
an emporium, where the spirit of domination prevails ; 
every species of spiritual traffic is encouraged. All 
this ensues from the perversion of its members. That 
men are made Christians by the Holy Grhost, and not 
born so, is the great principle perverted. " 

The gospel of Christ is the gospel of purity as 
well as peace, and wherever preached in its purity, and 
lived in its simplicity, it intonates society, the state, 
and the church. And wherever the place and work 
of the Holy Spirit is not usurped by ordinances, it 



170 The Church of Christ. 

accomplishes these ends. To realize the logical effect 
of a given doctrine, we must view it in its use in those 
times and countries where it has met with least oppo- 
sition ; where it has fullest sway and most universal 
practice. The full effect of infant baptism can not be 
seen in the United States. Here it meets too much 
opposition, and its influence is too much hindered by 
salient principles. In mediaeval times, or at present 
in Brazil, Mexico, France, and Italy, its logical effects 
may be seen to good advantage in the state of society, 
the condition of the state and the corruption of the 
churches of these countries. 

Seventh. "The varied grounds for pedobaptism 
assumed by its advocates, prove a prescriptive tenure 
only for the practice. There is no specific law for the 
rite ; so in all ages there has been a diversity of views 
among its abettors, as to the grounds of the practice, 
the reason of it, the extent of it, and the benefits con- 
ferred. At Alexandria baptism was inserted into the 
rules of academical education. At Jerusalem it was 
administered to promiscuous catechumens. In the 
deserts of Egypt it united to monastical tuition. In 
Cappadocia, it was applied as an amulet to entitle the 
dying to heaven. At Constantinople, it accommodated 
the baptized, and admitted them to the intrigues of 
a court. In all places it was given to children extraor- 
dinarily inspired. By an African bishop it was affixed 
to the universal depravity of human nature, and so 
reduced to an ordinary universal practice. Bob. Bap., 
196, 199, 267. In Italy it qualified for holy orders 



The Church of Christ. 171 

and heaven, and thus was given before or after birth." 
Such is infant baptism, which we are asked to 
regard with the tenderness of a Christian institution, 
as a primal part of the apparel with which Christ 
clothed his bride. A doctrine unknown in the word 
of God, arising far this side the close of the New 
Testament, having no higher authority than the enact- 
ment of Eomish church councils, and having no pur- 
pose to serve but the supposed regeneration of the 
subject, can lay little claim upon the heart of any to 
whom the word of Grod is a sufficient rule of faith and 
practice. Yet this doctrine is basal to many so-called 
churches, and without it they would soon cease to exist. 
This we will show when, at the end of the next division, 
we come to apply these doctrines. 



CHAPTER III.— Continued. 



THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE CHURCH. 



IV.— Regeneration the Basal Doctrine of the New Testa- 
ment Church. 



T T is meant by this that the church of Christ can not 
exist without a regenerated membership. Church 
membership to be scriptural must be a transcript of 
heavenly citizenship. It is not within the purview of 
this work to discuss the character or method of regen- 



172 Regeneratioji the Basal Doctrine 

eration. It is simply with the fact that we now have 
to do. However, from the opening promise "that the 
seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head," 
to the closing invitation of the Revelator, mankind is 
represented as being in a condition of heart by nature, 
and in consequence possessing a character, which inca- 
pacitates him to enjoy God, and unfits him to dwell in 
the divine presence. The offer of redemption grows 
out of this need, and presupposes the inability of man 
to change this corrupt condition of heart and restore 
this sin destroyed character. Hence, in offering man- 
kind redemption, God includes the change of heart, 
regeneration, and the bestowment of a character 
agreeable to his own holiness. The great end in view 
is to bring man unto himself qualified to enjoy his 
divine presence. The change most essential to this 
end is denominated regeneration. When Chirst came 
he taught the need of this change in terms too simple 
to be misleading. He says: "Except a man be born 
anew, he can not see the kingdom of God." John 
3:3. And: "Except a man be born of water and the 
spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." 
Ver. 5. The absolute necessity of the new nature is 
the great truth announced. It makes no difference, so 
far as our present use of these passages is concerned, 
if some do object, saying, "kingdom of God" is here 
used as meaning the final form of it, as it will be after 
the judgment when Christ shall have delivered it back 
to his Father, and not to the time form of it, as known 
only through the church. The reply is: It will profit 



of the New Testametit Church. 173 

nothing to live in the church without that condition of 
heart that will bring one into God's presence. Mani- 
festly, to be a church member requires the change 
essential to bring one on his way to heaven — the final 
end comtemplated in church membership. In the 
scripture idea of it, it is an earnest of our inheritance 
with God. This is what the apostle has in view when 
he speaks of the ideal assembly of the church. Heb. 
12:22, f. He says: "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, 
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jeru- 
salem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the 
general assembly and church of the first born who are 
enrolled in heaven.'' This ideal condition belongs to 
the future eternity. How, then, could it be said, they 
have come unto this condition of things? The answer 
is: Their church membership, based on regeneration, 
anticipated and guaranteed membership in this general 
assembly and church of the first born ; for by regenera- 
tion they also had been born of God and enrolled in 
heaven as his sons. The apostle brings out the idea 
elsewhere in this way: "For our citizenship is in 
heaven, from whence also we wait for a Savior, the 
Lord Jesus." Phil. 3:20. How could it be said, our 
citizenship is in heaven while we are here on earth? 
The answer is: Our church membership, presupposing, 
as it does, regeneration, which alone entitles to heavenly 
inheritance, anticipates and is the earnest of our citizen- 
ship which is in heaven. 

1. That this is the scripture teaching will appear 
obvious by examining into the following facts. 



174 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

Everywhere in the scriptures repentance and 
faith are set forth as proving regeneration. It is not 
meant by repentance, simply reformation of character, 
but that deeper work of grace which takes hold on 
the heart, and demonstrates thereto the exceeding 
sinfulness of sin. Nor is it meant by faith that intel- 
lectual assent to the historic truth of Christianity, but 
that deeper conception which carries with it a convic- 
tion of the need of a personal savior from sin ; which 
apprehends in Christ such a savior, and which lays 
hold on him by trusting him for salvation. Such 
repentance and faith are the gifts of God, and are reck- 
oned as flowing, not from the natural man, but from the 
new principle planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit. 
We said, these were the gifts of God. In Luke 24 : 46, f , 
the atonement of Christ is made the basis of repent- 
ance, and the remission of sins alike; that is, both are 
due to the fact that Christ has made atonement for 
sins. And his exaltation at the right hand of God is 
said by the apostle to have vested him with the right and 
authority to give repentance and remission of sins to 
Israel. "Him did God exalt with his right hand to be 
a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to 
Israel, and remission of sins." Acts 5:31. And Paul 
in instructing Timothy as to how he should conduct 
himself toward the unsaved, remarks: "In meekness 
instructing them that oppose themselves ; if peradven- 
ture God may give them repentance unto the knowl- 
edge of the truth." II Tim. 2:24, 25. In the same 
manner, faith is the gift of God. "For by grace have 



of the New Testame?tt Church. 175 

ye been saved through faith; and that not of your- 
selves; it is the gift of God. " Eph. 2:8. The power 
and disposition to exercise both the repentance and 
faith are the gifts of God, and therefore of grace. 
These grow out of the new principle in the heart, and 
sustain to it the relation of consequent to antecedent. 
Now just this condition of heart was demanded by 
both John and Jesus as prerequisite to baptism and 
the new order of things which they preached. Under 
the ministry of John, it was not enough to claim bap- 
tism because of descent from Abraham ; the claim must 
penetrate beyond the flesh and rest in the heart, flowing 
forth with "fruits worthy of repentance." Luke 
3:7, ff, and Matt. 3:7, f£. And from repentance, it 
must rise in faith, comprehending the increasing Christ 
(John 3:30) as "the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Nor does 
this order change under the ministry of Jesus. He 
came, demanding repentance as necessary to belief in 
the gospel. Mark 1:15. And charged that certain 
parties had repented not at the preaching of John, that 
they might believe the gospel. And alike to all he 
preached, that except men repent they must all like- 
wise perish. Nor was there a less demand of faith in 
his preaching than in that of his forerunner. He 
declared that it was the will of his Father, that all who 
believed on the Son should have everlasting life (John 
5:24, and 6:40), and that judgment had already come 
upon the unbelieving (John 3:18). Thus preaching, 
he came unto his own, as many of whom received him to 



176 Regeneration the Basal Doctri?ie 

such he gave power to be reckoned as the sons of G-o d. 
John 1:11-13. And thus being made disciples, they 
were admitted to the obedience of baptism. John 4:1, 
2. The same is true of the special ministries of the 
twelve and the seventy sent out by Jesus. They went 
out and preached that men should repent. And when 
we come to the ministry of the apostles, the same 
teaching goes before baptism. They required men to 
repent (Acts 2:38), and baptized those who received 
the teaching (Acts 2:41), and Grod added to them daily 
those that were being saved (Acts 2 : 47 ) . This manner 
of proceeding extended itself over their entire ministry, 
Grod adding to their number, both men and women, 
such as believed. Acts 5:14, and 8: 12. Nowhere is it 
intimated that the apostles in one single instance 
admitted anyone to the privileges of baptism and church 
membership without evidences of genuine repent- 
ance and faith. Now this unbroken agreement of the 
various ministers of the New Testament is equivalent 
to fundamental and vital law. If those acting under 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit preserved an unbroken 
unity in this respect, then by this fact the Holy Spirit 
has established the truth that regeneration must go 
before church membership. That unregenerate per- 
sons obtained baptism and church membership, is not 
denied. That does not affect the principle we allege. 
Obedience and church membership are voluntarily 
sought, and the fact that unworthy persons got in, 
only proves, that then, as now, men were dishonest 
or could be deceived in themselves. The fact remains 



of the New Testament Church. 177 

that they had to appear to be regenerated, to have 
actually repented and to have heartily believed in 
Christ. Received on the evidence of having done this, 
though some had not, leaves the principle unbroken. 
It was required of all and professedly complied with by 
those coming. 

2. Acting upon the principle established by these 
concurrent ministries, and each addressing itself to the 
gathered fruit under the same, uses such figures as pre- 
sume those spoken of to be in the possession of the new 
principle, regeneration. The ministry of John was pre- 
paratory unto the coming of Jesus, yet it was so thor- 
oughly evangelical in character that it struck deep into 
the hearts of those who received it, and sprang forth 
in righteous fruits of humble submission to him to 
whom it looked, so that when Jesus was come, and the 
results of John's ministry were gathered about him, 
John adds his last testimony to Jesus, with completed 
joy. "Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I 
am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before him. 
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the 
friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth 
him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's 
voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must 
increase, but I must decrease." John 3:28-30. John 
here employs the relation of bride and bride- 
groom as representing the relation existing between 
Jesus and his church. This is a relation that is 
founded on love; and one, when not thus founded, 
sinks to the level of fleshy lusts and is chargeable with 

12 



178 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

fornication, as we shall have occasion to see in the 
next chapter. John's form of speech is based on the 
presumption that those gathered unto Jesus and form- 
ing his bride, love him; and the apostle John says: 
"He that loveth is born of God." To view the bride 
of Christ in any other light, would be to abase the bond 
between Christ and his church to the level of fleshly 
lusts. Thus John recognizes the existence of the new 
principle in the hearts of those who, by his ministry, 
were made ready for Christ. 

And Jesus, when on trial before Pilate, answered 
him : ' 'My kingdom is not of this world ; if my kingdom 
were of this world, then would my servants fight, that 
I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my 
kingdom not from hence." John 18:36. Here is a 
kingdom in the world, and having servants, subjects, 
and yet not of the world. Jesus had just given his 
disciples to understand in the prayer comprising the pre- 
vious chapter, that though they were in the world (John 
17:11), they were not of the world (ver. 16). They 
were not of the world nor in the world, in the new nature 
which he had given them, they were in the world in the 
sense that the neiv nature was given them to dwell in 
the flesh and sanctify it for the Master's use. Al- 
ready he had taught them by a beautiful figure the 
nature of the relation existing between himself and 
them: "I am the vine, ye are the branches." John 
15:5. This is the apostle's idea, when he says: 
"Made partakers of the divine nature." By regenera- 
tion they had become engrafted into the Christ life, so 



of the New Testament Church. 179 

as to partake of the life that was in him. John 1:4. 
Thus we see that Christ presumes that there exists in 
those gathered about him from the ministry of John, 
and of himself, and of the twelve, and of the seventy, 
the new principle which characterizes his work and 
kingdom as not of this world. He had taught the 
acquirement of this neiv nature as essential to formal 
association with him, and, acting on the grounds of his 
disciples' conformity thereto, recognizes them as pos- 
sessing it, except Judas, whom he had previously 
declared to be a devil. John 6:70. 

Moreover, the apostles, acting on the same princi- 
ple, address those gathered into churches under their 
ministry by the use of such terms and figures as pre- 
sume them to have associated themselves with the 
church from the principle of regeneration working 
within them. They are called the elect, saints, new 
creatures, children of Grod, etc., all of which take it for 
granted that they had been born anew, and had 
become associated with the church from causes of spir- 
itual life acting within. Aside from these single terms, 
each of which presupposes the presence of spiritual life 
in those addressed, it is worth while to take notice of 
some of the figures used by the apostles. There is the 
comparison of the church to a human body. Rom. 
12:1, ff, and I Cor. 12:1, ff. It is worthy of remark 
that in both of these instances the members are said 
to have been set in the body by Grod. This setting in 
the body by the spirit of Grod presumes that those thus 
set in have been made to drink into one spirit (I Cor- 



180 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

inthians 12:12, 13) and are therefore regenerated per- 
sons. 

Individual church members are compared to a tem- 
ple: "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and 
that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. 7 ' I Cor. 3:16. 

The heart swept and garnished, and purged by the 
blood of Christ and renewed by the Holy Spirit, is a fit 
temple in which God dwells and worships. But this 
divine indwelling can only take place in the regenerate. 
Likewise the apostle speaks of a collection of saints 
builded together in Christ for the same purpose. "In 
whom each several building, fitly framed together, 
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye 
also are builded together for a habitation of God in the 
spirit." Eph. 2:21, 22. This being built together in 
Christ for the divine abode, presumes that condition of 
heart which is in fellowship with God. And once 
again, the apostle Peter declares that the church is u a 
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus 
Christ." I Peter 2:5. 

This idea of the church can not be realized where 
the unregenerate are admitted to baptism and member- 
ship. Hence we see that a regenerated membership is 
without question the New Testament idea of the church. 

Infant baptism and adult baptism for the remission 
of sins destroy this heavenly feature of the bride of 
Christ by admitting into a spiritual temple fleshly sub- 
jects. 



of the New Testa?nent Church. 181 

The episcopacy, baptismal salvation, infant bap- 
tism, and regeneration, as essential to church member- 
ship, constitute the basal doctrines of all organizations 
of Christian people. They are essentially so many 
conceptions of the church, to either one of which, if 
left to its advocates, they would immediately reduce 
the church. The New Testament can not teach differ- 
ent conceptions of the church. It holds but one con- 
ception. Now the removal of these doctrines from the 
creeds of the various churches holding them respec- 
tively, would result in the overthrow of such churches. 
But before we do this, there is a use of the word 
"spirit" in the New Testament to which we wish to call 
attention. It is this, the word "spirit" is frequently 
used to denote a system of doctrine or teaching. 

Christ said: "The words that I have spoken unto 
you are spirit, and are life." John 6:63. The words 
spoken by Christ were gospel words, words that con- 
stitute the trunk of the gospel tree. They are teaching 
words. They are doctrinal words. They comprise the 
New Testament system or economy of doctrine. Yet 
they are called "spirit." No difference in what sense 
you may say they are "spirit," the fact remains 
that the word "spirit" here represents the teaching, 
the doctrine taught by Christ. Nor is the word spirit 
used in this sense by Christ alone. Paul uses it in the 
same way as meaning the new covenant. His state- 
ment is, "who also made us sufficient as ministers of 
a new covenant ; not of the letter, but of the spirit ; 
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." II 



182 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

Corinthians 3:6. In this passage the word "spirit" is 
used as meaning the plan or covenant of redemption 
given in Christ. This covenant is a system of doctrine 
or teaching. And the apostle John (I Epistle 4:1, ££), 
uses the word as meaning the doctrine of antichrist. 
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, 
whether they are of God ; because many false prophets 
are gone out into the world." The teachings of these 
false prophets form the occasion for the precaution 
given. Already men were denying the divinity of 
Christ, and the agnostic doctrine was getting some 
hold. This doctrine is called by the apostle "anti- 
christ," and is the "spirit" he is exhorting to try. It 
is not a "spirit" person, but the system of teaching 
which embodies such, that he commands to prove. 
He gives a rule of trial: "Hereby know ye the spirit of 
God: every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ 
is come in the flesh is of God." That is, that teaching 
which teaches that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is 
teaching that is of God. But on the other hand' 
"every spirit which confesseth not Jesus, is not of 
God." That is, that teaching which denies Jesus in 
his true, divine character, is not the teaching of God, 
It is clear, therefore, that the word "spirit" is fre- 
quently used as representing a system of teaching or 
doctrine. Now it is in exactly this way that the same 
apostle, John, uses the word as descriptive of the three 
doctrines, episcopacy , baptismal salvation, and infant 
baptism. He says: "And I saw coming out of the 
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the 



of the New Testanient Church. 183 

beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three 
unclean spirits, as it were frogs ; for they are spirits of 
devils, working signs; which go forth unto the kings 
of the whole world, to gather them together unto the 
war of the great day of God, the Almighty." Revela- 
tion 16: 13-14. The war mentioned is one of doctrines, 
the same that is mentioned earlier by the same writer, 
thus: "And there was war in heaven. Michael and 
his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the 
dragon warred and his angels; and they prevailed 
not, neither was there space found any more in 
heaven." Revelation 12:7. The armies of this migh- 
ty conflict for truth as against error are arrayed un- 
der their respective leaders, Michael, and the dragon. 
The dragon is to be utterly cast out, and no place to 
be found for him. And let it be observed that the 
means by which the kings, rulers, of the whole world are to 
be gathered against God in this mighty conflict, are the 
11 three unclean spirits.'' 1 We have before seen that 
these doctrines grew up from the tendencies toward 
them in the second and third centuries. This was dur- 
ing the time of pagan Rome, and before Christianity 
was taken into collusion with the Roman empire. It 
is time now to look into the manner in which that col- 
lusion was effected. It was effected by Constantine 
the Great. In the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Reli- 
gious Knowledge, volume 1, pages 546, 547, the union is 
stated by Clemens Petersen in this way: "Tradition 
tells us that he was converted to Christianity suddenly, 
and by a miracle. One evening during the contest with 



184 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

Maxentins, he saw a radiant cross appearing in the 
heavens, with the inscription, 'By this thou shalt 
conquer/ The tradition is first mentioned by Euse- 
bius, in his De Vita Constantini, written after the em- 
peror's death. This miracle has been defended with 
ingenious sophistry by Roman Catholic historians , and by 
Card. Dr. Newman ( Tivo Essays on Biblical and on Eccle- 
siastical Miracles, 3d ed., Lond., 1873, pp. 271, seq.), 
but can not stand the test of critical examination. 
Constantine may have seen some phenomenon in the 
skies; he was no doubt convinced of the superior claims 
of Christianity as the rising religion, but his conversion 
was a change of policy, rather than of moral character. 
Long after that event he killed his son, his second 
wife, several others of his relatives, and some of his 
most intimate friends, in passionate resentment of 
some fancied infringements of his rights. In his rela- 
tion to Christianity he was cool, calculating, always 
regarding the practically possible. He retained the 
office and title of pontifix maximus to the last, and did 
not receive Christian baptism until he felt death close 
upon him. He kept pagans in the highest positions in 
his immediate surroundings, and forbade everything 
which might look like the encroachments of Christi- 
anity upon paganism. Such a faith in such a charac- 
ter is not the result of a sudden conversion by a mira- 
cle. If it were, the effect would be more miraculous 
than the cause. Judging from the character both of 
his father and mother, it is probable that he grew up 
in quiet but steady contact with Christianity. Christi- 



of the New Testament Church. 185 

anity had, indeed, become something in the air which 
' no one occupying a prominent position in the Roman 
world could remain entirely foreign to. But the singu- 
lar mixture of political carefulness and personal indif- 
ference with which he treated it presuppose a relation 
of observation rather than impression. 

"He knew Christianity well, but only as a power in 
the Roman empire; and he protected it as a wise and 
far-seeing statesman. As a power, not of this world, 
he hardly ever came to understand it. His first edict 
concerning Christians (Rome, 312) is lost. By the 
second (Milan, 313) he granted them, not only free 
religious worship and the recognition of the state, but 
also reparation of previously incurred losses. Banished 
men who worked on the galleys or in the mines were 
recalled, confiscated estates were restored, etc. A 
series of edicts of 315, 316, 319, 321, and 323, complet- 
ed the revolution. Christians were admitted to the 
offices of the state, both military and civil; the Chris- 
tian clergy was exempted from all municipal burdens, 
as were the pagan priests ; the emancipation of Chris- 
tian slaves was facilitated; Jews were forbidden to keep 
Christian slaves, etc. An edict of 321 ordered Sunday 
to be celebrated by sessation of all work in public. 
When Constantine became master of the whole empire, 
all these edicts were extended to the whole realm, and 
the Roman world more and more assumed the aspect 
of a Christian state. One thing, however, puzzled and 
annoyed the emperor very much, — the dissensions of 
the Christians, their perpetual squabbles about doc- 



186 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

trines, and the fanatical hatred thereby engendered. 
In the Roman empire the most different religions lived 
peacefully beside each other, and here was a religion 
which could not live in peace with itself. For political 
reasons, however, unity and harmony were necessary; 
and in 325 the emperor convened the first great ecu- 
menical council atNicae to settle the Arian controversy. 
It was the first time the Christian church and the 
Roman state met each other face to face, and the im- 
pression was very deep on both. When the emperor 
stood there, among the three hundred and eighteen 
bishops, tall, clad in purple and jewels, with his pecu- 
liarly haughty and sombre mein, he felt disgusted at 
those coarse and cringing creatures who one moment 
scrambled sportively around him to snatch up a bit of 
his munificence, and the next flew madly into each 
other's faces for some incomprehensive mystery. 

"Nevertheless, he learnt something from those peo- 
ple. He saw that with Christianity was born a new 
sentiment in the human heart hitherto unknown to 
mankind, and that on this sentiment the throne could 
be rested more safely than on the success of a court 
intrigue, or the victory of a hired army. The only 
rational legitimation which the antique world had 
known of the kingship was descent from the gods; 
but this authority had now become a barefaced lie, and 
was difficult to use even in the form of a flattery. At 
Nicae, however, the idea of kingship of God's grace 
began to dawn on mankind." Such the occasion, the 
place, the time, and the person who gave birth to the 



of the New Testament Church. 187 

Roman Catholic church. The germ had been planted 
previously in the tendencies toward the doctrines under 
consideration, but had been held in check, to some 
extent, by the stroug and persistent opposition with 
which they had met. This is the wedding day of 
Christianity and paganism. It is here that the dragon, 
pagan Rome, gives his seat and authority to the beast, 
Catholic Rome. Revelation 13:1, ff. From this time 
forward, the Romish church, wielding the carnal 
sword, forced upon unwilling subjects these doctrines, 
and whether willing or not, the kings of the world were 
by them arrayed on the side of the dragon in the 
great war against Grod the Almighty. This agrees 
with the order of succession so far; they came at first 
out of the mouth of the dragon, and later, out of the 
mouth of the beast. The question remains: Who 
fills the place of the "false prophet" in the order of the 
succession? The same apostle gives us the answer: 
Those formed in the image of the beast." "And I saw 
another beast coming up out of the earth •, and he had 
two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." 
Revelation, 13:11. When the reformation throes came 
on in the sixteenth century, it brought forth its beast 
which soon after divided into two general currents — 
that of the Lutheran and that of the Presbyterians or 
Reformers — with lamblike docility, but with dragon 
speech. The reformation retained the episcopacy, 
baptismal salvation, and infant baptism, of dragon 
origin, and of Catholic imagery and perpetuation, and 
hence "exercised the authority of the first beast, 'the 



188 Regeneratio?i the Basal Doctrine 

Romish church,' in his sight." The second or image 
beast was to do wonders in the earth and deceive many 
people. "And he deceived them that dwell on the 
earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to 
do in the sight of the beast ; saying to them that dwell 
on the earth, that they should make an image to the 
beast, who hath the stroke of the sword, and lived. 
And it was given unto him to give breath" (give life, 
the power of existing) "to it, even to the image of the 
beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, 
and cause that as many as should not worship the 
image of the beast should be killed. ' ' Revelation 13 : 
14, 15. The image of the beast consists in these indenti- 
cal doctrines, derived from the beast. This is the 
"false prophet" in the order of succession. But the 
question may be asked: Does this involve others who 
hold alike these three doctrines? We answer, yes. 
The two wings (symbolized by the two horns) into 
which the reformation split; headed one by Luther, 
the other by Calvin, comprehend in the two systems 
of doctrine, the practical basis of the whole pedobap- 
tist famliy. Calvin's wing long disputed the right to 
the throne of England, and at times seemed to be suc- 
cessful in obtaining it. 

Wherever there is episcopacy, baptismal salvation, 
or infant baptism, there is a practical reproduction of 
the beast image, and the underlying principle is either 
Calvinistic, or Lutheran. To strike down these doc- 
trines, at once destroys the Roman, and Greek Catho- 
lic churches, the Church of England and all pedobap- 



of the New Testament Church. 189 

tist churches, with the Mormons, Seven Day Adventists, 
and those coming from the reformation of Mk. A. 
Campbell in the present century. We have seen, 
clearly, that they are post-scriptural; originating in 
the second and third centuries. 

We have seen, also, that they are extra-scriptural; 
things not at all provided for in God's word. And 
now, may we not with the certainty of mathematical 
demonstration affirm that all those churches to which 
these doctrines are vital, which can not exist without 
them, are themselves like the doctrines which give 
existence to them, — both post-scriptural and extra-scrip- 
tural; born this side of the close of the New Testa- 
ment canon, and without the least shadow of support 
for an existence therein. You will observe, also, that the 
removal of these three doctrines in no way affects the Bap- 
tist church. It has nothing to do with any one of them, 
but discards all of them alike, as the property and peculiar 
heritage of the Roman Catholic church. But on the other 
hand, should you strike down the doctrine of regenera- 
tion as essential to baptism and church membership, 
you would strike a mortal blow at the Baptists, since 
none are admitted to baptism and membership with 
them, except such as profess to be made anew in Christ 
Jesus. 

And you will notice that to strike down this 
doctrine would not materially affect any of the churches 
that the removal of the other three would effectually 
destroy. But some one will ask: Do you hold that 
there are no Christians in other churches? no. The 



190 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

position does not involve that consequence. There 
are Christians without church membership, as there 
must be a period in everyone's life, more or less long, 
when such a one is a Christian and not a church mem- 
ber. That period lies between saving faith in Christ 
and Christian baptism. Large numbers of the mem- 
bers of these churches have trustingly believed on 
Christ, and are therefore Christians. They occupy the 
place of one who has believed and has not been bap- 
tized. 

Salvation neither depends on baptism or church 
membership. To be well pleasing to God and to reap 
the richest reward, does however depend on these 
things. Such persons are being deceived by being led 
to these post-scriptural churches for that obedience that 
meets the requirements of the scriptures, which alone 
can be had from scriptural churches. Besides all this, 
the doctrine of a regenerated church membership is not 
necessary to the existence of a single one of these 
churches, constructed as they are; for this plain rea- 
son, viz.: If in the theory and 'practice of a given com- 
munion of Christian people any member, or any one class, 
can obtain baptism and membership without evidences of 
regeneration, then under like conditions all the members 
of such communion can be admitted; and though there are 
regenerate persons in the same, the doctrine is not neces- 
sary to its existence. It is known that the Catholic and 
Protestant pedobaptists would rather have all their 
candidates for baptism brought when babies. It is 
true, also, that a large per cent of their members have 



of the New Testament Church. 191 

been received through this infant rite. If one may be 
received thus, all may ; and as infants are not capable 
of giving evidences of regeneration, it follows that 
regeneration is not essential to any church practicing 
infant baptism. It is essential only where evidences 
of it are required in all cases. 

If it be said by the reformation of Me. A. Campbell, 
and those holding like views, that they maintain this 
New Testament conception of the church, the reply is: 
Their teachings do not support the claim. If, as they 
teach, the sins of the candidate are not remitted till he 
is baptized, then there can be no evidences that such 
is a regenerate person until after he has passed into 
church relations. If he is regenerated it is by mere 
accident, and not in virtue of the doctrine taught, 
which may be stated in this way: He is not regener- 
ated when he enters the water, but is, when he emerges 
therefrom. Baptism is neither a means, nor yet a con- 
dition to regeneration, and that church which teaches 
that it is, can not, and does not, reproduce the New 
Testament idea of the church. If it is claimed by 
these peoples, that they require a renewed heart to go 
before baptism, the reply is: This can not be true, 
since that was the point of Mk. Campbell's departure 
from the Baptists, and the one point upon which he 
made his issue. That ground has been preoccupied 
by the Baptists in all ages, and if they admit it, they 
surrender their right to divide the church with those 
with whom they are in accord. If they claim this, 
there can be nothing left for them but to return to the 
Baptists. 



192 Regeneration the Basal Doctrine 

View the question in whatever light you may, and 
the existence of no people would be materially affected 
by the removal of the doctrine of regeneration as pre- 
requisite to baptism and church membership, except the 
Baptists. And view the other three doctrines as you 
may, their abandonment would effectually remove all 
other communions of people from existence. Here is 
the great war unto which these three spirits have gath- 
ered the kings and rulers of earth. It is a war for 
principle. And let either one of the three prevail 
against the truth, and in one single generation the 
cause of Christianity will have sunk to the level of the 
fleshly man, its power will have waned and the chief 
glory of the bride of Christ will be forgotten forever. 
If there were no other reasons than this — but there are — 
why the Baptists should be regarded as the church of 
Christ, this one justifies them before an open Bible, to 
the claim. What right, we may ask, would Baptists 
have to maintain a separate existence, if they did not 
hold some great cardinal doctrine, essential to the sal- 
vation of the world, not held by other communions? 
None whatever. Yea, and more, to do so would be 
high-handed sin and presumption. Bat this is the 
doctrine for which Baptists now stand as in the past, 
though at great cost to them. 

We have said enough on this point. We leave the 
matter with the honesty of those who may read these 
pages, praying Grod to guide such into his own truth. 

A resume of this chapter shows the following 
features of the church. 



of the New Testament Church. 193 

1. The church in the local assembly of the same 
is self governed in all things, there being no court over 
a local church. It is a sovereign body over its own 
matter. 

2. Believers on Christ, only, are subjects of Chris- 
tian baptism. 

3. Christian baptism is a confession of faith in 
Christ as a personal savior from sin. 

4. Regeneration as prerequisite to baptism and 
church membership, distinguishes the church of Christ 
in the midst of all rival claimants. This is the doc- 
trine by which the twain have become one. Made par- 
taker of the divine nature, the church, the bride, is the 
chief glory of him who "loved the church, and gave 
himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having 
cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that 
he might present the church to himself a glorious 
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; 
but that it should be holy and without blemish. Eph. 
5: 25-27. This divine idea of companionship be- 
tween Christ and the church is laid in regeneration. 
To admit any who do not profess this change to bap- 
tism and church membership, is to destroy every fea- 
ture that distinguishes the church as not of this world. 

No one can love Christ till given the new nature, 
and none can think of companionship between Christ 
and an enemy. Yet where the unregenerate are admit- 
ted to membership, this is the condition fostered on 
the church. Baptists have had to stand alone in their 

13 



194 The Church of Christ. 

contention for this doctrine through all the ages, and 

without their presence it would soon be lost to the 
world. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CHURCH. 

I.— To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 

"Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations." Matt. 
28:19. "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15. 

Functions: What is meant by it? " Office or 
employment, or any duty or business belonging to a 
particular station or character, or required of a person 
in that station or character. ' ' In the case of the church 
it is the discharge of the duties involved in the relations 
sustained to God on the one hand and to mankind on 
the other. Thus the functions of the church involve a 
twofold relation, and consequently a twofold obliga- 
tion. Obligation grows out of relation, and every par- 
ticular obligation is peculiar to a particular relation. 
Perhaps nothing in connection with the church has 
been so shamefully and heartlessly abused, as the func- 
tions that belong to it. It is made a savior body, 
without membership in which one must perish, no dif- 
ference if such a one does believe on Christ with all his 
heart. It is made an infallible body ; one which alone 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to AH. 195 

through its human head, the pope, can know and 
interpret the scriptures and the will of God. It is 
made a legislative body ; one which by its own decrees 
usurps the consciences of men, and marks out the 
course of their Christian conduct. It is held to be a 
body, vested with the power to anathematize the souls 
of men, and thus hold them bound in chains of end- 
less punishment; or to have power to release them at 
the caprices and good pleasure of the priesthood. It is 
held that it is the prerogative of the church to sell 
indulgences for the commission of all kinds of crime, 
and that when indulgences are granted by the author- 
ities of the church, the commission of the deed is no 
longer crime. It is held that the church is supreme 
in civil matters, as well as in matters of religion, and, 
therefore, should control, all matters of state. These 
are some of the abuses to which the functions of the 
church have been subjected. Ought we not, in the 
midst of all this, to ask our Father which is in heaven 
to guide us in our study of this important question? 
The church of Christ and the people of Grod ought to 
understand the boundary lines within which they are to 
labor, and they should be contented to remain within 
the same in all things. If the work of the church is a 
divine work, then there is a divine boundary to that 
work in all of its relations. And that divine boundary 
is to be learned from the divine order book, the Bible. 
Turning thereto, let us study: 

1. The church in her relation to God in the labor 
of preaching the gospel. And here is a relation which 



196 The Church of Christ. 

has limitations to it. The loyalty of the church to God 
is nowhere more thoroughly tested, than in this rela- 
tion. The church is not a body, competent to create 
divine thought, but simply to receive such. Hence, 
the Holy Spirit has warned against any effort to trespass 
upon this divine prerogative. U I marvel, 77 said Paul 
to the Galatians, "that ye are so quickly removing 
from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a 
different gospel; which is not another gospel; only 
there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the 
gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from 
heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than 
that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. 
As we have said before, so say I now again: If any 
man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that 
which we received, let him be anathema." Gal. 1:6-9. 
Rather than a priest anathematize his subjects because 
they do not receive and obey his mandates, let them 
anathematize him for entering into the precincts of 
God with another gospel. This is the divine injunc- 
tion, and it is necessary to the honor of God, and the 
glory of his truth. Why this rigid injunction by the 
apostle! Because, already men were seeking to per- 
vert the gospel by teaching and commanding human 
traditions and doctrines, and thus usurping the special 
province of the Holy Spirit in revealing truth. "For, 
am I now persuading men, or God, 77 says the apostle 
by way of emphasis. Is the matter of truth, and the 
divine prerogative of making it known to men, of such 
little importance, that we should turn from the gospel 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 197 

as revealed unto us, to another simply to please men. 
"For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he 
should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. " 
I Cor. 2:16. It is sufficient for the church to know 
that she has the "mind of Christ 7 ' revealed in the 
scriptures, and to accept the same in the spirit in 
which Paul exhorts Timothy to accept it. "Every 
scripture inspired of G-od is also profitable for teaching, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction, which is in 
righteousness; that the man of G-od may be complete, 
furnished completely unto every good work." II Tim. 
3:16, 17. The inspired scriptures are set forth as com- 
plete in all things needed. That teaching which adds 
to them the traditions of men, dishonors God and 
makes the gospel of none effect. Nor is Paul the only 
inspired writer who demands a rigid adherence to the 
things which are revealed. The apostle John has this 
to say: "If anyone cometh unto you, and bringeth 
not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and 
give him not greeting; for he that giveth him greeting 
partaketh in his evil works." II John 10, 11. And, 
as if grieved at the tendency to substitute the doctrines 
of men for revealed truth, the Holy Spirit before clos- 
ing the canon of the scriptures, adds a last solemn 
warning, saying: "I testify unto every man that 
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any 
man shall add unto them, Grod shall add unto him the 
plagues which are written in this book ; and if any man 
shall take away from the words of the book of this 
prophecy, Grod shall take away his part from the tree of 



198 The Church of Christ. 

life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this 
book/' Rev. 22:18, 19. And as the Holy Spirit closes 
his work in this relation to our salvation, the curtains 
are drawn back once more, and Jesus Christ sanctions 
the completed work of the Paraclete. "He which tes- 
tifieth these things saith, Yea, I come quickly." Ver. 
20. He who can stand in the awful presence of this final 
warning of the Holy Spirit, and press upon the con- 
sciences of God's children human traditions, can but 
expect the punishment threatened. From these, and 
other similar passages, it is clear that in her relations 
to God the church is to be governed solely by his 
revealed truth. She is to accept it as the mind of God, 
and as completely furnishing her in all things that God 
requires of her. To depart from this rule, is to dis- 
honor God, question his wisdom, and make the gospel of 
none effect. But to the faithful keeping of this relation, 
the church of Christ has adhered, through all the 
intervening centuries, though at great cost of life. The 
innovating has come from other sources, and has had 
its foundation in the assumption of popery. The apostle 
says of that assumption: "Now we beseech you, 
brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and our gathering together unto him ; to the 
end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor 
yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by 
epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now 
present ; let no man beguile you in any wise ; for it will 
not be, except the falling away come first, and the man 
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that oppos- 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 199 

eth and exalteth himself against all that is called God 
or that is worshiped ; so that he sitteth in the temple of 
God, setting himself forth as God." II Thes. 2:1-4. 
Several things in this passage demand notice. First. 
The "f ailing away" that must precede the revealing of 
"the man of sin, the son of perdition." Clearly this is 
a falling away from revealed truth. We have previ- 
ously had occasion to notice this departure from truth, 
at first in tendency and later in the establishment of 
the episcopacy. Second. When revealed, he is to 
oppose himself against God, and exalt himself against 
all that is called God. He is to assume to be sovereign 
over all that is worshiped. Third. In this exalted 
character, he is to usurp the temple of God, and 
set himself forth as God. Thus set forth, he abro- 
gates to himself divine attributes, and divine pre- 
rogatives. Let no one suppose for a single moment, 
that the expression "temple of God" here means 
the church of Christ, for such is not the case. We 
have the same expression used elsewhere in a way 
that brings out the meaning here. "Know ye not 
that ye are a temple of God, and that the spirit of 
God dwelleth in you? If any man shall destroy the 
temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple 
of God is holy, which temple ye are." I Cor. 3:16-19. 
The temple of God as used here, is the heart of his 
children, the rightful abode of the Holy Spirit. Such 
is the temple usurped by "the man of sin, the son of 
perdition." He has arrogated to himself the dominion 
of the Holy Spirit, and sits enthroned in the hearts of 



200 Hie Church of Christ. 

his devotees as . possessing divine prerogatives, holding' 
in his hands the mysteries of all truth, and the destinies 
of all people. He is worshiped and adored above all 
that is called God. From every quarter of the globe 
his cringing slaves turn to him for eternal life, and 
with eternal vigilance court his favor at the expense of 
truth and principle, because in him resides the power 
to send souls down to eternal death. Who is this man 
of sin, this son of perdition? The pope of Rome 
answers in his own claim of divine attributes and pre- 
rogatives. He it is, who claims to have the power to 
forgive sins, and who arrogates to himself infallibility, 
and vicegerency. Thus claiming these things for him- 
self, he sits enthroned in the hearts of his vassal slaves 
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped. This 
Eomish usurpation of the place of the Holy Spirit, and 
this highhanded blow at the relation that exists between 
the church and God, develops in two lines. To these 
we must now invite your attention. The first is based 
on the key power said to be given to Peter as the suc- 
cessor of Christ and the first pope. Let us examine 
into the development of this doctrine, as stated by 
G. E. Steitz: 

"I. Among the Fathers. Misconceptions of 
the power to bind and to loose arose very early. The 
Clementine Homilies, representing a Judao-Christian 
standpoint, know very well the original meaning of 
the two verbs, 'to bind' and to 'loose' and correctly 
supplement them with impersonal objects; but at the 
same time they extend the sense so as to compass the 



To Pi-each or Teach the Gospel to All. 201 

whole power of the episcopal office as a continuation of 
the apostolic office (III. 72). On the other hand, the 
Gentile -Christian churches of the second century inter- 
preted the power to bind and to loose as an authority 
to retain and remit sin, and supplemented the two 
verbs with personal objects. But while thus identify- 
ing the power of the keys, and the power to bind and 
to loose, making no other distinction between them 
than that between the more general and the more 
special expression, the Gentile-Christian churches did 
not consider the bishop the bearer of this power; it 
rested with the congregation as a totality. 

"It is not to be wondered at, however, that some 
vagueness and confusion should prevail in the ancient 
church concerning these ideas. In the further devel- 
opment, Montanism forms an important link. Tertul- 
lian teaches that the power to forgive sins belongs to 
the church ; but as it belongs to the church only as far 
as she is identical with the Holy Spirit, the right to 
exercise the power belongs exclusively to her truly 
spiritual members, — the homo spiritualis. In his work 
Be Pudicitia he sets forth this idea in opposition to the 
bishop of Rome, who taught that the power to forgive 
sins was vested in the whole episcopate (numerus episco- 
porum). The later view was then taken up and carried 
farther by Cyprian. As the bishop, he says, is the heir 
of the apostolic power, and the seat and organ of the 
Holy Spirit, he — that is, not the whole episcopate, but 
every single bishop — has the power to forgive sins. 
Optatus of Mileve finally formulates the argument in 



202 The Church of Christ. 

this way: Christ gave the keys to Peter, and it was 
Peter who then gave them to the other apostles. In 
the works of Cyprian, the phrase 'to bind and to loose' 
always means to retain and to remit sin. Excommu- 
nication and reconciliation are identical with anathema 
and absolution, only that the words have not yet that 
fullness and explicitness of meaning which they ob- 
tained during the middle ages. The atoning power of 
penance still depends upon the activity of the penitent, 
rather than the activity of the church. All the church 
can do is to prescribe the medicine for the wounds 
which sin has made; and wound and sin, medicine and 
penance, physician and priests, are ever recurring 
similitudes. Nevertheless, the church is not altogether 
without some kind of mediating office. Extra ecclesiam 
nulla salus ('outside of the church no salvation'), 
says Cyprian ; and he repeats it with great emphasis. 
The nature of this office begins to show in the writings 
of Augustine. The similitudes change. Sin does not 
make a wound any more; it kills. The sinner is not a 
sick man who needs to be cured, but a dead man, who 
needs to be restored to life. The resurrection of Laza- 
rus is woven into the whole argument. This restora- 
tion to life the church, of course, can not perform ; 
but Augustine asserts (Serm., 99, 9) that it is done 
through the church, by means of the church. In the 
writings of Leo the Great, finally, the Roman Catholic 
idea of the priesthood as a special power mediating 
between God and man, and without whose mediation 
no divine grace can take effect, becomes definitely 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 203 

formed; without the intercession of the priest, sin can 
not be forgiven, — ut indulgentia Deinisi supplicationibus 
sacredotum nequeat obtineri (Ep. 108, ad Theod., cap. 
ii)." Thus we see the road by which the tendency 
traveled, until it enthroned itself in the priestly order 
with power to forgive sins. This was a gross departure 
from the simplicity upon which the gospel started out, 
and was a usurpation of the place and prerogatives of 
the divine, in the economy of human redemption. 
This is also the origin of the doctrine of u no church 
membership, no salvation." The pope now sitting in 
the place of Christ as mediator between God and man, 
and personifying in himself the church, with the power 
to forgive sins or bind, is the father of this unscriptu- 
ral doctrine, as well as the usurper of divine preroga- 
tives. And here, in giving it out that he holds this 
power to forgive sins, he gives it out that he is G-od, 
who alone can forgive sins. From the establishment 
of this first divine prerogative, the growth into other 
arrogant assumptions will be easy and rapid. 

"II. DUKING THE MIDDLE AGES, AND IN THE KOMAN 
CATHOLIC DOGMATICS. 

"The primitive church distinguished between three 
classes of members — the faithful, the catechumens, 
and the penitent. The power of the keys was estab- 
lished chiefly for the third class, though in some 
instances also for the second; but there is nothing 
which indicates that the faithful ever made a confession 
of sins to the priest, even not before partaking of the 



204 The Church of Christ. 

Lord's supper. Early in the middle ages, however, 
and among the newly converted German peoples, a 
tendency arose to make penance, which originally was 
a special instruction for special occasions, a general 
characteristic of the whole church, and to establish 
the power of the keys, which originally dealt with the 
penitents only, as a general court of judicature above 
all the faithful. The first germ of that tendency may 
be discovered in the circumstances that through the 
monastic discipline sins in thought gradually became 
subject to the power of the keys, which in the prim- 
itive church they were not. (See Wassers-Chleben, 
Bussordnungen der Abendlandischen Kirche.) In mon- 
asteries it was considered a rule of discipline to confess 
to the brethren even the slightest occurrence of sinful 
emotion. The penitential of Virman, an Irishman 
who flourished in the old Britton church towards the 
close of the fifth century, prescribes for sin in thought 
a rigid fast for half a year; an abstinence from wine 
and meat for a whole year. The Anglo-Saxon peniten- 
tial, which bears the name of Theodore of Canter- 
bury, prescribes from twenty to forty days' fast for 
feeling lust. Columban (d. 615) brought this whole 
system to the continent; and so rapidly did it take 
root there, that Abbot Othmar of St. Grail (d. 761) sets 
it forth as a maxim — no confession, no forgiveness of 
sin; and Eegino of Priim (d. 915) demands that every 
member of the congregation shall confess at least once 
a year. The first provincial synod which makes con- 
fession a general duty is that of Aenham, 1109. Inno- 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 205 

cent III (1198-1216) finally introduced confession 
throughout the church in spite of the opposition which 
the penitentials produced, especially in France. With 
regard to the theological definition of absolution, and 
the part belonging to the priest in its administration, 
two different views run almost parallel with each other 
during the first part of the middle ages. According to 
the one view represented by Jerome and Gregory the 
Great the priest is simply judge in for o ecclesioe; he 
declares that forgiveness has taken place, but takes no 
part himself in the act of forgiving. The divine for- 
giveness takes place before the absolution of the priest, 
even before the confession by the sinner, in the very 
moment the heart repents. How prominent this view 
was, even in the twelfth century, may be seen from the 
manner in which Gratian treats the subject. (Caus. 
xxxiii, qu. iii.) He raises the question whether or 
not a sinner can satisfy God by repentance only, and 
secret penance without confession, then states the 
arguments and authorities on both sides, but finally 
leaves the reader to decide the question for himself. 
Petrus Lombardus, the contemporary of Gratian, 
defines (lib. iv, dist. 17) the priest's power to bind 
and to loose as a power merely of declaration, just as 
the disciples could not free Lazarus from his bonds 
until Christ had revived him. Still more are Cardinal 
Robert Pulleyn (d. 1150), and Peter of Poitiers, chan- 
cellor of the university of Paris (d. about 1204). 
According to the other view, represented by Leo the 
Great and Alcuin, the priest is not simply judge in faro 



206 The Church of Christ. 

ecclesioe but in foro Dei, — a true and indispensable 
mediator between God and the penitent. It found its 
full development in the Be Vera et Falsa Poenitentia, a 
work belonging to the eleventh century, or the twelfth, 
but ascribed to Augustine, and in the school of the 
Victorines. The priest appears as the representative of 
God, or as a kind of God himself; and, in his DePotes- 
tate Ligandi et Solvendi, Richard of St. Victor explains 
how God transforms the eternal punishment into a 
transitory one, and how the priest transforms the 
transitory punishment into a penance. 

"These views were dialectically reconciled, and 
combined with each other, by the great schoolmen of 
the thirteenth century, especially by Thomas Aquinas. 
He starts from the proposition on which the first of the 
above mentioned views is based — that it is God alone 
who can forgive sin, and that he does so solely for the 
sake of the sinner's repentance. But he considerably 
modifies the bearing of these propositions by adding 
that no repentance can be full, or fully effective, unless 
it involves a desire for the sacramental confession and 
absolution. And he finally reaches the second, the 
opposite view, by defining the part belonging to the 
priest in the sacrament of penance in analogy with that 
belonging to the water in the sacrament of baptism ; 
the priest is the instramentum animatum, as the water 
is the instrumentum inanimatum. He consequently 
defends with great ardor the formula, ego te absolve, 
etc. (Opuse. xxii.) The view of Thomas was dogmat- 
ically fixed and officially adopted as the doctrine 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 207 

of the Roman Catholic church by the council of 
Trent in its fourteenth session, November 25, 1551." 
Schqff-Herzog , Encyclopedia of Bel. Knowl., vol. 
ii, pp. 1241, 1242, 1243. Thus the Roman Catholic 
church traveled on the highway of the key power to 
the dogma; no priestly confession and absolution, no 
salvation. 

This is an abuse of the functions of the church, 
that is full of evil. It paved the way for that mastery 
over the consciences of the Catholic people, that is held 
by the priests. It is the foundation of the traffic car- 
ried on by the priests in the sale of indulgences. It 
lies at the foundation of the dogma of the pope's in- 
fallibility, and is inseparably associated with other 
kindred abuses of the functions of the church. It 
usurps the place and functions of the Trinity, and 
practically retires Father, Son, and Spirit from further 
connections with the work of salvation. The passages 
from which it is evolved are the following: "I will 
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; 
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound 
in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." Matt. 16:19. 

Of this passage Dr. J. A. Broadus says: "Bind 
and loose, in the Talmud and other Rabbinical writ- 
ings (Lightf., Wet., Wun., Edersh.), signify to inter- 
pret and apply the law and traditions on any subject 
with strictness or with laxity, and hence in general to for- 
bid or allow. The strict school of Shammai is represented 
as binding many things which the school of Hillel loosed. 



208 The Church of Christ. 

Comp. on 19:3. In Rabbinical phrase it would be said 
that in Acts 15:10 Peter advocated loosing what the 
Judaizers wished to hind. Diod. Sic. tells (1:27) of an 
image of Isis with the inscription, 'I, Isis, am queen 
of all the land, and whatever I shall bind no one can 
loose.' These uses seem to leave no doubt as to the 
meaning of the terms here. Our Lord declares that 
whatever Peter should forbid or allow, should declare 
to be wrong or right, would be sanctioned by divine 
authority, approved in heaven. As Peter was the 
spokesman of all the apostles, we should naturally 
understand that the same would be true of all the 
inspired teachings (Comp. John 16:13); they would 
have heaven's approval. And this included forgiving 
or retaining sins (John 20:23), which was promised to 
the apostles and others present. (Comp. Luke.) Sim- 
ilar in that case is the expression, l loosed us from our 
sins,' Rev. 1:5 (correct text), and the same phrase in 
Isa. 40:2 (Sept.); Ecclus. 28:2. In 18:18 exactly the 
same promise as to binding and loosing is made to all 
the persons addressed ('ye'), meaning either the apos- 
tles in general, or more probably the action of any 
church. From the abuse of 16:19; 18:18; and John 
20 : 23, arose the Romish doctrine of priestly absolution, 
which some Protestant persuasions retain in a modified 
form. Ministers may teach the conditions of forgive- 
ness, but they have no inspired knowledge of discern- 
ing a persons spiritual condition, and declarations of 
absolution are of no value beyond stating the condi- 
tions." Com. on Matt. A comparison of the passages 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 209 

mentioned in the above (they comprise all that are re- 
sorted to in support of the doctrine) will show that 
there was no preference given to Peter, but that the 
other apostles, and even all the disciples, were included. 
And more, it will show that the power to bind and loose 
was a power vested in the means they were under the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit to propose. Their words, 
the gospel, should bind men if rejected or loose them if 
received, and thus their work in its results would be 
approved in heaven. 

Second. The second abuse of the functions of the 
church, and one closely allied with the above, is that 
of infallibility. Strange to say, important as this doc- 
trine is held to be by the Eoman Catholic church, but 
one passage is cited in the Vatican decrees upon which 
it is rested. That passage is: "Simon, Simon, behold, 
Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as 
wheat; but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith 
fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned 
again, stablish thy brethren. '' Luke 22: 31, 32. They 
say that Christ prayed that faith might not fail Peter; 
that the pope is Peter's successor; and that as Peter 
resides in the pope, he is still preserved from failing 
faith; and that therefore, when the pope speaks ex- 
cathedra, his utterances are infallible. But Arch Bishop 
Kenrick, in his famous speech, prepared to be delivered 
before the Vatican council, has abundantly demonstra- 
ted, that the word "faith" here does not refer to the 
system of doctrine, nor yet to the teaching gift; but to 
Peter's personal trust in Christ as a redeemer from sin. 

14 



210 The Church of Christ. 

This is so manifestly clear that it seems strange that 
any other use should be made of the passage. But we 
must remember that the pope is an arrogating person- 
age. He is announcing himself as possessing divine 
attributes and prerogatives, and even to his credulous 
slaves the claim must appear to have some support in 
the scriptures. While the doctrine has practically ex- 
isted through the entire history of the Eomish church, 
it was not till recent years that it was officially dogma- 
tized. It is well to examine into the history of it in its 
progress of development, and the shameful contra- 
dictions involved in it. 

"Infallibility of the pope, the doctrine that the 
bishop of Rome in his official character, i. e., whenever 
he speaks ex-cathedra on a question of Catholic doc- 
trine or morals, is free from error, and that his deci- 
sions must be accepted as final, without needing con- 
firmation by an ecumenical council. Personally the pope 
may be a heretic and a bad man, or an ignoramus ; but 
as the head of the church he is supposed to be divinely 
protected from error. The fathers, the ancient creeds 
and councils, know nothing of this doctrine ; and the 
Greek church rejects it as a blasphemous assumption. 
It arose in the middle ages, in connection with the 
pseudo-Isidorian decretals, and was defended by able 
schoolmen (even Thomas Aquinas), but stoutly denied 
by the reformatory councils of Pisa, Constance, and 
Basle, which asserted the superiority of a council over the 
pope. After the council of Trent, it became a bone of 
contention between the Grallicans and the Jesuits. The 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 211 

latter triumphed in the Vatican council, which brought 
the controversy to a close, and formulated the new 
articles of faith by the decree of July 18, 1870, in these 
words: 'Therefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition 
received from the beginning of the Christian faith, for 
the glory of God our Savior, the exaltation of the 
Catholic religion, and the salvation of Christian peo- 
ple, the Sacred council approving, we teach and define 
that it is a dogma divinely revealed, that the Roman 
pontiff when he speaks ex-cathedra; that is, when, in the 
discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Chris- 
tians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he 
defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held 
by the universal church, by the divine assistance prom- 
ised him in blessed Peter (Luke 22:32), is possessed of 
that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed 
that his church should be endowed for defining doctrine 
regarding faith or morals ; and that therefore such def- 
initions of the Roman pontiff are irreformable of them- 
selves, and not from the consent of the church. But if 
anyone — which may Grod avert! — presume to contra- 
dict this our definition, let him be anathema.' 

"Papal infallibility was the chief topic of the Vatican 
council ; it was discussed under powerful opposition for 
several months. When the vote was first taken in se- 
cret session (July 13, 1870), six hundred and one 
members being present, four hundred and fifty-one 
bishops voted in the affirmative {placet), eighty-eight 
in the negative (non placet), sixty-two voted with a 
qualification (placet juxta modum), and over eighty. 



212 The Church of Christ. 

though present in Rome, abstained from voting. 
On the evening of the same day the minority, 
which included the ablest and most influential prelates 
(as Darboy of Paris, Schwarzenberg of Prague, Raus- 
cher of Vienna, Dupanloup of Orleans, Forster of Bres- 
lau, Ketteler of Mayence, Strossmayer of Bosnia, Hefele 
of Rottenburg, Kenrick of St. Louis), sent a deputa- 
tion to the pope, and begged him on their knees to 
modify the proposed decree, and to make some conces- 
sion for the peace and unity of the church. But Pius 
IX surprised the deputation with the assurance that 
the church had always believed in the unconditional 
infallibility of the pope ('I am the tradition'). In the 
secret session of July 16, on motion of some Spanish 
bishop, an addition was inserted declaring the pope in- 
fallible before and without the consent of the church, 
(non autem ex consensus ecclesioe). On the 17th of July, 
fifty-six bishops, opposed to the dogma, sent a written 
protest to the pope, declaring their firm adherence to 
their conviction, but also their reluctance to vote against 
him on a matter affecting him personally, and asking 
leave to return home. On the evening of the same day, 
the signers of this protest, and sixty additional mem- 
bers of the opposition, left Rome (taking advantage of 
the rumors of war), and thus gave an easy victory to 
the majority. In the public session, held July 18, 
there were but five hundred and thirty-five members 
present, and all voted placet except two ( Bishop Riccio 
of Sicily, and Bishop Fitzgerald of Little Rock, Arkan- 
sas, who dared to protest against the Big Rock of 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 213 

Eome) ; but these two changed their vote before the 
close of the session. After the vote, the pope, amidst 
a fearful thunderstorm and flashes of lightning, read 
by candlelight, in St. Peter's Cathedral, the decree of 
his own infallibility. The day after, Napoleon III, his 
chief political support, declared war against Germany. 
This war in a few weeks swept away both his throne 
and that of the pope, and resulted in the unification of 
Italy, with Eome for its capital, and the establishment 
of the German empire under the lead of Protestant 
Prussia. The proclamation of this new dogma is the 
cause of the secession of the 'Old Catholics' under the 
lead of Bollinger (heretofore the pride of the Roman 
church in Germany) and other eminent Catholic 
scholars. It is also the cause of the renewal of the 
serious conflict between the pope and the emperor 
(the Cultur-Kampf, the Falk-laws, Bismark's refusal 
to go to Canossa, etc.), and of a similar conflict 
between the pope and the French republic, which arose 
on the ruins of the empire. 

"The Vatican dogma is the apex of the pyramid of 
the Roman hierarchy. Logically it is more consistent 
than the Gallican theory, as an absolute monarchy is 
more consistent than a constitutional monarchy. 

"It teaches an unbroken and ever active infallibil- 
ity, while Gallicanism secures only a periodic and inter- 
mittent infallibility, which never reveals itself except 
in an ecumenical council. But neither theory can stand 
the test of history, and is a mere pretension. The 
sixth ecumenical council (held in Constantinople 680) 



214 The Church of Christ. 

condemned and excommunicated Pope Honorius I 
(625-638) 'as a heretic (Monothelite), who, with the 
help of the old serpent, had scattered deadly error.' 
This anathema was solemnly repeated by the seventh 
and by the eighth ecumenical councils (787 and 869), 
and even by the popes themselves, who, down to the 
eleventh century, in a solemn oath at their accession, 
indorsed the sixth ecumenical council, and pronounced 
'an eternal anathema' on the authors of the Monothe- 
lite heresy, together with Pope Honorius, 'because 
he had given aid and comfort to the perverse doctrines 
of the heretics.' This papal oath was probably pre- 
scribed by Gregory II, at the beginning of the eighth 
century, and was found in the Liber diurnus and Liber 
pontificalis down to the eleventh century. Even the 
editions of the Roman Breviary, before the sixteenth 
century, reiterated the charge of heresy against Hono- 
rius. Pope Leo II strongly confirmed the decree of 
the council against his predecessor Honorius, and de- 
nounced him as one who 'endeavored by profane trea- 
son to overthrow the immaculate faith of the Roman 
church' ('qui Jianc apostolicam ecclesiam non apostolicoe 
traditionis doctrina lustravit, sed profana proditione im- 
maculatam fidem subvertere conatus est'). See Mansi, 
Concilia, torn, xi, p. 731. Now either the council, or 
the pope, or both, must have erred. The stubborn 
case of Honorius, which alone is sufficient to upset the 
dogma (for si falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus), was 
strongly urged before the passage of the decree by 
learned members of the council, as Bishops Hefele and 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 215 

Kenerick ; and their arguments have never been refuted. 
But a dogma triumphed over history. If facts are 
against opinion (it was said by the infallibilists), all 
the worse for the facts. History knows of other heret- 
ical popes. Zephirinus (201-219) and Callistus (219- 
223) were Patripassians ; Liberius (358) signed an Ar- 
ian creed, and condemned Athanasius, 'the father of 
orthodoxy,' who mentions the fact with indignation; 
Felix II was a decided Arian; Zosimus (417) at first 
indorsed the heresy of Pelagius and Coelestius, whom 
his predecessor, Innocent I, had condemned; Vigilius 
(538-555) vacillated between two opposite decisions 
during the Three Chapter Controversy, and thereby 
produced a long schism in the West; John XXII 
(d. 1334) denounced a certain opinion of Nicolas III, 
and Clement Y, as heretical ; several popes taught the 
universal depravity of men in a manner that clearly 
includes the Virgin Mary, and is irreconcilable with the 
recent dogma of the immaculate conception. Sixtus V 
issued an edition of the Latin Bible with innumer- 
able blunders, partly of his own making, and declared 
it the only true authentic text. Bellarmin, the great 
Eoman controversialist and infallibilist, could not deny 
the facts, and advised the printing of a new edition with 
the bold statement in the preface, charging the errors 
of the infallible pope upon the fallible printer, though 
the pope had himself corrected the proofs. Pius IX, 
who proclaimed his own infallibility, started out as a 
political reformer, and advocate of Italian unity, but 
afterwards detested and condemned it as the worst 



216 The Church of Christ. 

enemy of Christianity. But since 1870 Gallicanism is 
dead, and the Roman church must sink or swim with 
an infallible pope." Schaff. 

Such is the history, and such the contradictions of 
the doctrine of popish infallibility. The doctrine is 
self destructive. It serves however to identify the" man 
of sin," who exalts himself above all that is worshiped, 
or that is called God. 

The two doctrines, priestly absolution and infalli- 
bility, practically retire the Trinity and the scriptures 
from the economy of human redemption. 

God is not needed, since the priest can absolve 
from sins. Christ has no place, since practically faith 
in the merits of his blood has been superseded by the 
mediation of the pope, and the exaltation of Mary. 

The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is not 
necessary, nor can he be had, since the right to rule in 
the heart of the people is usurped by the pope, who 
alone is sovereign over the hearts and consciences of his 
subjects. The word of God is not essential, since an 
infallible pope can set its teachings aside by his de- 
crees, or, if necessary, reproduce all that is required for 
the accomplishment of God's will with mankind. 

It is not to be wondered at, that out of such arro- 
gant assumption should issue those principles that sup- 
plant the whole economy of redemption. 

But on the other hand, it is to be wondered at, that 
Protestant people should accept as meeting the require- 
ments of the word of God, a church government and 
ordinances, and many other doctrines that have no 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 217 

higher basis than Romish infallibility. Thus we see 
how Romanism destroys for herself and Protestants, 
this first relation of the church to Grod, in her mission. 
According to this teaching, the church is under no ob- 
ligation to God to abide in her teaching strictly by the 
scriptures. This, of itself, is sufficient to prove that 
such are not New Testament churches. 

2. The relation the church sustains to mankind in 
her teaching mission. To "teach" is the great purpose 
of the church's existence. This privilege is withheld 
from angels, and seraphims, and cherubims, and is 
granted unto the church, the bride of Christ. The 
church is not a teacher of philosophy and science, these 
give no life to the souls of men, but of the gospel 
" which is the power of Grod unto salvation to every one 
that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 
Rom. 1:16. The very spirit of life with which the 
church is animated, is missionary in nature. All the 
New Testament leaders in the early history of the church 
were missionaries. John came, as declared by the Holy 
Spirit though Zacharias his father, "To give knowl- 
edge of salvation unto his people in the remission of 
their sins, because of the tender, mercies of our God, 
whereby the dayspring from on high shall visit us, to 
shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow 
of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace." 
L-uke 1:77-79. And when John began his ministry, 
it was intensly a ministry of teaching. The great car- 
dinal elements of it were sin and its deadly opposition 
to God, with the God appointed means of salvation 



218 The Church of Christ. 

therefrom, Jesus the Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world. And when Jesus came and entered 
on his work, every heart throb was filled with anxiety 
to teach. This was an important element of his mis- 
sion. Said he: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings 
to the poor ; he hath sent me to proclaim release to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the accept- 
able year of the Lord." Luke 4:18, 19. From the mo- 
ment he entered upon his work, till the close of the 
last day of the same, he was busy, preaching in Judea, 
Galilee, and Samaria to all the people, this glorious 
message. Nor would he suffer those under him to be 
idle. The twelve were ordained and sent forth, and 
later the seventy, and later still, when the time had 
come to burst through the bounds of Judaism, and 
break the message of glad tidings to the Gentile world, 
he sent forth his church on a mission of love and mercy 
as a teaching body. 

How well the church understood this mission is 
shown in the Acts and epistles. At first slow to com- 
prehend the full meaning of the unlimited bounds of 
the commission, but gradually led by the Holy Spirit 
to grasp its meaning, we find them gradually encroach- 
ing upon Gentile dominions, until Paul could say be- 
fore his death the gospel had been preached in the 
whole world. The twelve were busy men in preaching, 
and Peter before his death had gone as far as Babylon 
(I Pet. 5: 13), preaching, and from there wrote his 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 219 

first epistle. Paul and Barnabas, and John Mark and 
Silas, had done good work in northwestern Asia, the 
isles of the Mediterranean sea, and southern Europe, 
even penetrating into Spain. Strong and aggressive 
churches had sprung up all over this territory, and 
Christianity was revolutionizing the whole social fab- 
ric. This is mission history, and is the best and sur- 
est interpretation of what Christ intended his church to 
be in her relations to the world. That congregation of 
Christian people in the heart of which the mission 
spirit rises highest, has most of the divine Christ in it. 
The very pulsation of the divine heart is missionary. 
It goes out after the perishing. But it is time to ask : 
What shall the church teach? And the answer is: 
The gospel, first, last, and all the time. The end in view 
is the salvation of the perishing. And as the plan by 
which this is to be accomplished is of divine, not hu- 
man, origin, that plan must be faithfully taught and 
strictly complied with. 

God shines out in power through his own truth, and 
his divine ordinances and appointments. Chris- 
tian people who depart, in teaching or practice, from 
the gospel, are not only unfaithful and disloyal to Glod, 
but are also to the race of mankind. 

Christ said his words were spirit and life, and Paul 
teaches that the gospel is the power of Grod unto sal- 
vation. 

In a departure from the truth, there is a loss of spir- 
itual life and power, and the assumption of a form of 
godliness which denies the power. This is strongly 



220 The Church of Christ. 

set forth both by Christ and the apostles. Jesus said to 
the Pharisees and scribes: u Ye leave the command- 
ment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. And 
he said unto them, full well do ye reject the command- 
ment of God, that ye may keep your tradition. For 
Moses said: Honor thy father and thy mother; and 
he ; that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die 
the death : but ye say, if a man shall say to his father 
or his mother that wherewith thou mightest have been 
profited by me is Corban, that is to say, given to God; 
ye no longer surfer him to do aught for his father or 
his mother ; making void the word of God by your tra- 
ditions, which ye have delivered: and many such like 
things ye do." Mark?: 8: 13 (comp. Matt. 15: 5, 
ff). The law of Moses held that the child should honor 
its parents, but the Pharisees had evaded the respon- 
sibility of caring for parents, by the ingenious method 
of claiming to have dedicated the provisional things to 
God, and hence, to have placed them beyond the reach 
of parents. This supplanted the word of God and made 
it of none effect. A similar supplanting of the word 
of God had been carried on in other respects, until the 
truth was obscured and its power over men lost. There 
was no longer any divinely appointed avenue through 
which God might manifest himself to his people. The 
effect was just what both Christ and Paul declares it to 
be. (a) A lip service, "ye hypocrites, well did 
Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people honoreth 
me with their lips ; but their heart is far from me." 
Matt. 15: 7, 8. (b) A service of self righteous- 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to AIL 221 

ness founded in zeal and ignorance: "Brethren, my 
heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them, 
that they may be saved. Fori bear them witness that 
they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowl- 
edge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
seeking to establish their own, they do not subject 
themselves to the righteousness of God." Rom. 10: 
1-3. Thus, on the sliding board of human traditions, 
the Jews had departed from God without conscious- 
ness of the same, and had established themselves in a 
lip service, without any heart in it, and a self-right- 
eousness without any God in it. They had acted on 
the philosophy of many Protestant pedobaptists, viz. : 
"It is only an outward form, and it makes little dif- 
ference as to what that is, so the aim is to please God." 
They had forgotten that the outward forms were teach- 
ing forms, and that through them God revealed himself, 
even more effectually than through words. The result 
was, a heartless and soulless service, one from which 
God had been driven away, because of the retirement 
of his truth through which alone he comes into the 
hearts of men with life given power. It will require no 
deep philosophy of human nature to understand that 
under the New Testament dispensation a departure 
from revealed truth by the substitution of human tra- 
ditions, will be attended by a like loss of the divine 
presence and power. Indeed, the lip service will be 
there, accompanied by a zeal for God, and an as- 
sumption of righteousness, but God will be conspic- 
uously absent in his approving power. 



222 The Church of Christ. 

Take as an illustration of the thought, infant 
baptism. Here the word of God is made void: (a) 
In supplanting the subject of baptism. It is no longer 
one whose heart is carried into it. In this respect, there- 
fore, God does not dwell in and actuate the subject. 
Thus far, then, there is no divine presence in the act, 
andean not of course be any new life manifested through 
it. (b) In the establishment of a carnal righteous- 
ness. And mark you, all this is done in zeal for God. 
The subject grows to years of rationality, it finds it- 
self in the church clothed upon with what it is taught 
to regard as Christian baptism, and further led to be- 
lieve in the doctrine of church salvation, it sinks 
down into carnal security, persuaded in its own con- 
science that it is fit meet for the Master's use. The 
whole process makes void the word of God by the tra- 
ditions of men. Let us now examine into the un- 
derstanding of this relation to the world, by the early 
church. Christ said to his apostles, "ye are wit- 
nesses of these things. 57 Luke 24: 48. He had 
just enumerated to them the great cardinal points 
of his sacrificial offering. In teaching, and in prac- 
tice, these points were to be made known. The offer- 
ing of the blood of Christ should be testified to the 
heart of the race as the procuring cause of the remis- 
sion of sins, and his death, by means of which his 
blood was offered, and his resurrection, by means of 
which his new form of life was revealed, should be em- 
bodied in practice. In a word, they were to witness 
both by word and obedience. And each new con- 



To Preach or Teach the Gospel to All. 223 

vert was to become an added witness to these great 
saving truths. In their relations to Christ as witnesses 
of the truth, they sought not to create truth, but on 
the contrary confessed the inability of man to know the 
truth without the Holy Spirit revealing it to him. 
"But unto us God revealed them through the spirit ; for 
the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of 
God." I Cor. 2: 10. This bearing of witness to the 
truth, they each maintained to the end of their lives. 
Fearful are the warnings laid down by the apostles 
against a departure from the truth of the gospel. A 
Christian community going forth in the name of the 
gospel and presumably as a witness for Christ, but 
armed with the traditions of the episcopacy, baptismal 
salvation, infant baptism, and sprinkling and pouring for 
baptism, is a dead form, haying no spiritual unction 
and power ; and results in flooding the cause of Christ 
with men who have espoused the form of sound 
words, but robbed them of their power. The loyalty 
of the church to the world, as well as to Christ, 
demands that she preach a pure gospel, shunning not 
to declare, as did the apostle (Acts 20:20, ff), the 
whole counsel of God. What the unsaved need is a 
complete gospel. Through such the Holy Spirit 
rides, as in a heavenly vehicle, iuto the heart of the 
unsaved and claims it for God, and his own abode. 
It was the chief glory of Paul as he stood before the 
opening gates of heaven, after having preached the 
gospel for nearly a third of a century, that he had 
fought the good fight, had finished the course, and 



224 The Church of Christ. 

had kept the faith, and now in view of the crown for 
which he had striven, he was being joyfully offered up. 
Would God all Christian people were as faithful in 
this respect as was Paul. 



CHAPTER IV.— Continued. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CHURCH. 
II. — Baptism. 

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. " 
Mark 16:16. "Baptizing them into the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Grhost." 
Matt. 28:19. "Bepent ye, and be baptized, everyone 
of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission 
of sins." Acts 2:38. "But when they believed Philip 
preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God 
and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both 
men and women." Acts 8:12. "Now I praise you 
that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the 
traditions, even as I delivered them to you." I Cor. 
11:2.. 

These passages set forth quite accurately the duty 
of the church to baptize, as well as the duty of the be- 
liever to be baptized. No question connected with 
Christian doctrines and practice has been subjected to a 
more shameful abuse than has that of baptism. This 
abuse has been in four directions: (a) By a change of 



Baptism. 225 

the subject. (&) By a change of the design, (c) By 
a change of the act to be performed. And (d) By a 
change of the administrator. 

These perversions have been attended with great 
loss to the original simplicity and meaning of the ordi- 
nance, and have been the cause of much bitter strife 
and hard feelings among the people of God. In the 
midst of all this, however, the church owes it to God, 
as well as to those whom she baptizes, to so teach them 
that their obedience in this respect will be accepted of 
God as meeting the requirements of the command to 
baptize, and the command to be baptized. Asking God 
to guide us, let us study the question of baptism in all 
the elements required by the New Testament scrip- 
tures. 

First. — The subject. — In the previous chapter we 
have seen that everywhere in the New Testament, faith 
in Christ is essential to preparation for baptism. And 
more ; we saw that this was the universal practice, till 
near the beginning of the fourth century. It is not, 
therefore, necessary to repeat that proof here. There 
can be no obedience where there is no personal faith, and 
there can be no personal faith where there is no 
personal will and choice. Obedience is essential to bap- 
tism, hence faith is essential to obedience. Baptism is 
intended to be well pleasing to God, but " without faith 
it is impossible to be well pleasing unto God." Bap- 
tism as an act of obedience is accepted as forensic right- 
eousness, but "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Eom. 
14:23. 

15 



226 The Church of Christ. 

Second. — The design of baptism. — This is a confes- 
sion of personal faith in Christ as a Savior from sin. 
This also was shown in the previous chapter, where we 
answered at large the perversions of the design of the 
ordinance. It is not pertinent to repeat that argument, 
only to say as Paul does: "For ye are all sons of God, 
through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as 
were baptized into Christ did put on Christ." Gal. 
3:26, 27. Everywhere in the scriptures baptism fol- 
lows closely after faith, and as embodying faith in 
form and obedience. No other design can be shown as 
belonging to baptism. 

Third. — The act commanded. — And here we come 
to strongly controverted grounds. The Roman Cath- 
olic church, resting the definition of doctrines on the 
infallibility of the pope, while admitting that immer- 
sion was the primitive and apostolic baptism, justifies 
sprinkling and pouring for baptism on the grounds of 
this infallibility. The Greek Catholic church rejecting 
the infallibility of the pope, rejects also sprinkling and 
pouring as popish departures from the primitive and 
apostolic baptism, and now, as well as through the 
entire history of the Greek church, immerse, even their 
infants. 

Protestant pedobaptists have been met with the 
greatest difficulty in justifying sprinkling and pouring 
for baptism. Claiming to throw off, as they do, the 
traditions of Rome, and to rest their claim on the scrip- 
tures, they have sought to justify the departure in two 
ways. 



Baptism. 227 

(a) By evolving baptism out of the ceremonial 
cleansings of the Old Testament. 

(6) While the more learned and conscientious of 
them admit that the primitive and apostolic baptism 
was immersion, they tell us "it is only an outward form, 
and as such it is of little importance as to the exact 
form, so the baptized has inwardly the thing intended.' ' 

The question may be asked : Is baptism of such 
little importance as to be treated with such indifference 
as this? We think not. The form embodies the fact 
for which baptism stands. That fact is death, burial, 
and resurrection, which are essential and vital to its 
meaning. A change of the form has been attended 
with a change of the fact embodied. It is held by Prot- 
estant pedobaptists pretty generally, to symbolize the 
pouring out of the Holy Spirit, thus changing the fact 
embodied to suit the change in the form of the act. In 
determining what the Savior meant to be done when 
he commanded to baptize, we have recourse to the cur- 
rent use of the word chosen to express the act to be 
done. 

There is no controversy over the meaning of the 
term used, till we come down to the sixteenth century. 
True, the Roman Catholic church practiced affusion 
prior to that time, but resting it on the infallible de- 
crees, they found no occasion to controvert the mean- 
ing of the term used. That was a work left for the 
reformation to do. 

Let us now examine into the meaning of the word 
baptidzo, as used by the Greek speaking people. 



228 The Church of Christ. 

(1) Its meaning as defined by the lexicons: 

Liddell & Scott give for bapticho, "to dip in or 
under water." 

Thayeb's New Testament lexicon gives. 1. Prop- 
erly to dip repeatedly, to immerge, to submerge. 2. To 
cleanse by dipping or submerging. To this agrees sub- 
stantially all lexicons, saysPEOF. Stewaet, of Andover. 
u Baptidzo means to dip, plunge, or immerse into a 
liquid. All lexicographers and critics of any note are 
agreed on this." Bib. Repos., p. 298. 

This is a practical surrender of the lexicons to 
immersionists, by this learned pedobaptist. How are 
we to take the meaning of words? They are signs of 
ideas, and each word must have some primary idea 
which it is peculiarly fitted to express. 

Eenesti, p. 14, lays down some general laws for 
determining the meaning of words, thus: " (a) Every 
word must have some specific idea, or notion, which 
we call meaning. Were this not so, words would be 
meaningless and useless. (b) The literal, which is 
also called the grammatical sense of a word, is the sense 
so connected with it that it is first in order, and is spon- 
taneously presented to the mind as soon as the sound is 
heard. This meaning is always (save in one lexicon, 
i. e., Stockius) placed first in lexicons, and is known 
as the primary meaning." "(c) The primary or lit- 
eral meaning is the only true one." This is so obvi- 
ously true that it seems no one would question it. 
Whatever figurative meaning any word may have, that 
meaning can be such only as it derives from the literal 
meaning upon which it must rest. 



Baptism. 229 

Blackstone, in his Com. on Eng. Law, volume 1, 
pages 59, 60, lays down some similar rules for determin- 
ing the meaning of words. He says in substance: 

(a) " Words are generally to be understood in 
their usual and most known signification; not so much 
regarding the propriety of grammar as their general 
popular use." 

(b) "If words happen still to be dubious, we may 
establish their meaning from the context." 

(c) "The meaning of words may be established 
by having a regard to the subject-matter." 

(d) "As to effect, if the effect is absurd when 
taken literally, we must deviate from the literal mean- 
ing." 

(e) "If still dubious, we may establish the mean- 
ing by considering the reason and spirit of it, or the 
cause that led to it." Immersion, as the meaning of 
baptizso, will stand the test of any one of these rules, 
while neither sprinkling nor pouring will, as we shall 
have occasion to see at the close of this section. 

(2) To immerse is the meaning of baptidzo in 
classic Greek. 

T. J. Conant, who .was appointed by the Bible 
Union to prepare an historical and philological treatise 
on the use of the word in all periods of Greek literature, 
after having investigated its use during the whole 
period, and citing two hundred and thirty-six examples, 
arrives at the following conclusion relative to its 
use in the New Testament. We omit his refer- 
ences to examples cited, as such would be of no 



230 The Church of Christ. 

profit to the reader without his book. He says: 
" The word baptizeine, during the whole existence of 
the Greek as a spoken language, had a perfectly defined 
and unvarying import. In its literal use it meant, as 
has been shown, to put entirely into or under a liquid, 
or other penetrable substance, generally water, so that 
the object was wholly covered by the inclosing ele- 
ment. By analogy, it expressed the coming into a new 
state of life or experience, in which one was, as it were, 
inclosed and swallowed up, so that, temporarily or per- 
manently, he belonged wholly to it. 

' 'The word was a favorite one in the Greek language. 
Whenever the idea of total submergence was to be 
expressed, whether literally or metaphorically, this was 
the word which first presented itself. The connection 
might be of the most elevated and serious, or of the 
most familiar and even ludicrous matter. It was a 
daily household word, employed in numberless cases 
when the use of the word ' baptize' would be a profa- 
nation. Salt, wool, the hand', a pole, a cork, a net, a 
fishspear, a bladder, an ape, an insect, a salad, were 
with perfect propriety said to be baptized (immersed). 
A man was baptized (immersed) when he was ducked 
in sport or revenge, or was accidentally submerged by 
a swollen stream. A ship was baptized (submerged), 
when she was overloaded and sunk. So, metaphor- 
ically, one was baptized (immersed), in calamities, 
when he was swallowed up by them as by an ingulfing 
flood; in debts, when he owed vast sums and had no 
means of paying them ; in wine, when his faculties were 



Baptism. 231 

totally overborne and prostrated by it; with sophistries, 
when his mind was wholly confounded by them. The 
relation in which it was used associated with it, for the 
time being, ideas peculiar to that relation; but the 
word itself, protected by the daily and hourly repetition 
in common life of the act which it described, retained 
its primary meaning and force unchanged. It was a 
familiar term, understood by all because all used it in 
their everyday conversations, which our Savior 
employed when prescribing the initiatory rite of his 
church. It conveyed to the minds of the disciples a 
meaning as clear and definite as the words to eat and to 
drink, in his institution of the supper. The claim, that 
he used it with any other meaning than that which has 
been exhibited in this treatise, originated in ignorance 
of the literature of the world. No one, it is presumed, 
with a full knowledge of the case, would assert that the 
Savior employed it in a new sense, unknown to those 
whom he addressed ; for that would be to charge that 
he used it with the intention, or at least with the cer- 
tainty of being misunderstood.'' Baptizeine, pp. 134, 
136. Such the use of the term in Greek literature. 
So all scholars have understood, and admitted down 
through the ages. The post-Christian use of the word 
will demonstrate this to be true. 

(3) Church requirements and practice. The Greek 
church has always immersed, having never admitted 
anything else as answering to the requirements of the 
meaning of the word. In Goar's Euchologion or ritual 
of the Greek church the following order: 



232 The Church of Christ. 

"Office of: the holy immersion (baptism). And 
when the whole body is anointed, the priest immerses 
(baptizes) him (the child), holding him erect and 
looking toward the east, saying: 'The servant of God 
(name) is immersed (baptized) in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now 
and ever, and to ages of ages, amen.' " It would seem 
strange that the Greek church would practice immer- 
sion, if it were not required in the meaning of the word. 

But the Roman Catholic church in "Order of Sacra- 
ments, composed by Pope Gregory I," prescribes this 
order: "The font being blest, and he holding the in- 
fant by whom it is to be taken up, let the priest inquire 
thus: 'What is thy name! (Answer). Dost thou 
believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven 
and earth! Answer: I believe. And in Jesus Christ, 
his only Son our Lord, who was born and suffered? 
Answer: I believe. Dost thou, also, believe in the 
Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the remission 
of sins, the resurrection of the body? Answer: I believe. 
Then let the priest baptize ivith trine immersion, once 
only invoking the Trinity, saying: And I baptize thee 
in the name of the Father (and let him immerse once), 
and of the Son (and let him immerse a second time), and 
of the Holy Spirit (and let him immerse a third time). 1 " 1 
According to the doctrine of infallibility, the Romish 
church is bound to this ritual for all time. 

In the "Book of Common Prayer and Administra- 
tion of the Sacraments/ 7 the church of England 
prescribes this order: "Then the priest shall take the 



Baptism. 233 

child in his hands, and ask the name. And naming 
the child, shall dip it in the water thrice. First dip- 
ping the right side; second, the left side; the third 
time dipping the face toward the font ; so it be dis- 
creetly and warily done, saying: I baptize thee in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. Amen. And if the child be weak, it shall suf- 
fice to pour water upon it, saying the aforesaid words. " 
The definition given to baptism in the rituals of these 
churches, is supported, not only by their own scholars, 
but by those of all other pedobaptist communions. 

We quote the following from the Graves-Ditzler 
debate on the mode of baptism, because of their being, 
collated, but not without having verified them. 

(4) The Eastern or Greek church historians, A. B. 
350 and on. 

Gregory, A. D. 300, says: "We are buried with 
Christ by baptism, that we may also rise with him." 

Basil, A. D. 360: "By three immersions the 
great mystery of baptism is accomplished." 

Ambrose, 374: "Thou saidest I do believe, and 
wast immersed in water, that is, thou wast buried." 

Chrysostom, 398: "To be baptized and plunged 
in the water, and then to emerge, or rise again, is a 
symbol of our descent into the grave, and our ascent 
out of it." 

Stourdza says: "The church of the west (refer- 
ring to the Roman Catholic church) has, then, departed 
from the example of Jesus Christ ; she has obliterated 
the whole sublimity of the exterior sign. Baptism by 



234 The Church of Christ. 

aspersion is, as if one should say, immersion by asper- 
sion, or any other absurdity of the same nature. " 

De. Whitby: "The observation of the Greek 
church is this, that he who ascended out of the water, 
must first descend down into it." 

De. Wall : "The Greek church in all the branches 
of it does still use immersion." Hist, of Inf. Bap., 
part ii, ch. ix. 

Deylingius: "The Greeks retain the rite of im- 
mersion to this day, as Jeremiah, the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, declares." De Prudent Pastoral, part in, 
ch. in, 26. 

Buddeus: "That the Greeks define immersion is 
manifest, and has been frequently observed by learned 
men, which Ludolphus informs us is the practice of 
the Ethiopians." Theol. Dogmat., b. v, c. i, 5. 

Schubeet: "It is the opinion of the Greeks that 
the true baptism of Christ is administered, not by the 
applications of water in anyway, but by immersion, or 
by hiding the person to be baptized under water." 
Instit. Theol. Polem., part n, ch. in, 12. 

Russian Catechism: "This they (the Greek 
church in Russia) hold to be a point necessary, that no 
part of the child to be undipped in the water." In 
Booth on Bap., vol. n, p. 414. 

The bishop of Cyclades published at Athens, 
Greece, in 1837, a book entitled, The Orthodox Doctrine. 
Speaking of sprinkling he says: "Where has the pope 
taken the practice from! Where has the western 
church seen it adopted, that she declares it to be right? 



Baptism. 235 

Has she learned it from the baptism of the Lord? Let 
Jordan witness, and first proclaim the immersions and 
emersions. From the words of onr Lord : Hear them 
aright. Disciple the nations, then baptize them. He 
says not then anoint them, sprinkle them; but he 
plainly commissions his apostles to baptize. The word 
baptidzo explained, means a vertable dipping, and in 
fact a perfect dipping. An object is baptized when it is 
completely concealed. This is the proper explanation 
of the word baptidzo. Did the pope, then, learn it 
from the apostles, or from the word and the expression, 
or from the church in the splendor of her antiquity? 
Nowhere did such a practice prevail ; nowhere can a 
scripture passage be found to afford shelter to the opin- 
ions of the western church. " In Bap. Mag. 1849. 

Prof. Stuart: "The mode of baptism by immer- 
sion, the Oriental church has always continued to pre- 
serve even down to the present time." 

The Rev. C. G. Jones, of Lynchburg, Va., wrote 
recently to Dr. A. Diomeds Kyriasko, professor in the 
University of Athens, Greece, asking his understand- 
ing of the meaning of baptidzo. Replying he says: 

" Athens, August, 1890. 
"Dear Sir: The verb baptize- in the Greek lan- 
guage never has the meaning of to pour or to sprinkle, 
but invariably that of to dip. In the Greek church, 
both in its earliest times and in our days, to baptize 
has meant to dip. It is through this process that our 
church baptizes and always has baptized both infants 
belonging to Christian families and adults turning 



236 The Church of Christ. 

from any other religion to Christianity; i. e., by dipping 
them thrice into water. Thus also (meaning by dip- 
ping) used the apostles to baptize. Were it not so, 
Paul could not have compared baptizing to the death 
of Christ, saying that in baptism we are buried with 
Christ and are risen with him ; that is to say, the old 
man in us has been buried, and the new man fash- 
ioned according to the likeness of Christ risen again. 
Since baptism, therefore, by the cleansing of the soul, 
this idea can only be clearly represented by the entire 
dipping of the body into water, and not by sprinkling or 
pouring." Western Eecorder, Sept. 25, 1890. 

Thus for fifteen centuries, and comprising the 
whole period of the history of the Greek church, she 
has invariably practiced immersion in baptizing, and 
has refused to authorize any other so-called form to 
take its place. The united voice of her scholars and 
historians is of great weight in determining what is the 
ineamng of the term used by Christ, since the Greek 
language is native with them. They are as well quali- 
fied to define a Greek term as English scholars are 
to define an English term. According to them the 
term invariably means to immerse. And more, they 
tell us it never has the meaning of pour, or sprinkle. 
Hence pour or sprinkle for baptism could not have been 
thought of by Christ, for the manifest reason that the 
word selected had not the remotest relation to either, 
and to have commanded either pour or sprinkle through 
oaptidzo, would have been to obscure his meaning to 
those to whom he gave the command at first. 



Baptism. 237 

(5) But to tliis agrees the testimony of the histo- 
rians of the Latin or Roman Catholic church. 

Bishop Bossuet says: "We are able to make it 
appear, by the acts of councils and by ancient rituals, 
that for thirteen hundred years baptism was thus admin- 
istered (by immersion) throughout the whole church, 
as far as possible." Stennett ad Russen, p. 176. 

De. Bkemek, says: " Thirteen hundred years was 
baptism generally and regularly an immersion of the 
person under the water, and only in extraordinary 
cases a sprinkling or pouring with water; the latter was 
moreover, disputed as a mode of baptism, nay even 
forbidden." Hist. Exhib. of Admin, of Bapt. from 
Christ to our Own Times, p. 306. 

Bede, born A. D. 672, died 735, a church historian, 
says: "He who is baptized is seen to descend into the 
font; he is seen to ascend out of the water." 

J. Maldonatus, teacher and commentator, died 
1583, says: "For, in Greek, to be baptized is the same 
as to be submerged." Com. on Matt. 20:22, Luke 
12:50. 

F. E. De Mezekay (1610-1683) a French historian 
of much note, says: "In baptism in the twelfth cen- 
tury they plunged the candidate in the sacred font 
to show them what operation that sacrament hath on 
the soul." Speaking of its administration up to the 
fourteenth century he says, "Baptism remained in the 
Catholic church the same, and was performed by dip- 
ping or plunging, not by pouring or sprinkling." 
Mezeray's Hist, of France. 



238 The Church of Christ. 

Bkenakd Picaet (1663-1733) says: "Baptism by 
ablution or aspersion was not known in the first century 
of the church, when immersion was only used, and it is 
said it continued so till St. Gregory's time." Relig. 
Ceremo., vol. 2, p. 82. 

A. Bowek (1686-1766) says: "Baptism by immer- 
sion was undoubtedly the apostolic practice, and was 
never dispensed with by the church except in cases of 
sickness." Hist, of the Popes, vol. 3, p. 110. 

These men, all of them Roman Catholic scholars 
and historians, tell us that in apostolic times, and for 
thirteen centuries following, the practice was to im- 
merse or dip, when baptizing, and that pouring or 
sprinkling was only allowed in extreme cases of sick- 
ness. Such testimony is of great weight, coming as it 
does from those who now practice pouring and sprink- 
ling for baptism. It ought to be said, however, to the 
credit of the Roman Catholic church, that she does not 
claim that the scriptures sanction either, but that the 
pope, as the vicegerent of Christ, can change laws and 
customs. Thus she claims to possess the power to 
make the change in the act of baptism. 

(6) The scholars and historians of the Anglican 
or Episcopal church are agreed that immersion was the 
apostolic practice. 

De. Whitby: "And this immersion being rigor- 
ously observed by all Christians for thirteen centuries, 
and approved by our church," that is, approved by the 
Church of England. 



Baptism. 239 

Bingham: "The ancients thought that immersion, 
or burying under water, did more lively represent the 
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, as well as our 
own death to sin, and arising again into righteousness. " 
Chris. Antiq's. And, again, in his Origins, the same 
author says: "As this (dipping) was the original 
apostolic practice, so it continued the universal practice 
of the church for many ages. 7 ' 

Dk. Wm. Cave (1637-1713), a learned divine, 
church historian, and chaplain to Charles II, says: 
"The party to be baptized was wholly immersed or 
put under water, whereby they did more notably and 
significantly express the three great ends and effects of 
baptism." Prim. Christ., p. 1, ch. x. 

Dr. George Gregory (1754-1808) : ' 'The initiatory 
rite of baptism was (in the first century) publicly per- 
formed by immersing the whole body." Hist, of the 
Ch., vol. 1, p. 53. 

Dr. A. P. Stanly, born 1815, an eminent English 
scholar, divine, and historian, professor of church 
history at Oxford, dean of Westminster, chaplain to 
the Prince of Wales: "There can be no question that 
the original form of baptism * * * was complete 
immersion in the deep baptismal waters, and for at 
least four centuries any other form was either unknown 
or disregarded, unless in case of dangerous illness as 
an exceptional, almost a monstrous, case. To this form 
the Eastern church (Greek) still rigidly adheres, 
* * * and the Byzantine empire absolutely repudi- 
ates and ignores any other mode of administration 
as essentially invalid." Eastern Church, p. 117. 



240 The Church of Christ. 

And again the same author speaking of John's 
ministry, says: "He came 'baptizing' — that is, signi- 
fying to those who came to him, as he plunged them 
under the rapid torrent, the forgiveness and forsaking 
of their former sins, etc." 

De. Wm. Wall, M. A. (1645-1727), eminent 
writer on the history of infant baptism, says: "This 
(immersion) is so plain and clear by an infinite number 
of passages, that one can not but pity the weak 
endeavors of such pedobaptists as would maintain the 
negative of it ; so we ought to disown and show a dis- 
like of the profane scoffs which some people give to the 
English anti pedobaptist merely for the use of dipping, 
when it was, in all probability, the way by which our 
blessed Savior, and for certain, was the most usual 
and ordinary way by which the ancient Christians did 
receive their baptism. 'Tis a great want of prudence, 
as well as of honesty, to refuse to grant to an adversary 
what is certainly true, and may be proved so. It 
creates a jealousy of all the rest, one says. The custom 
of the Christians in the near succeeding times (to the 
apostles) being more largely and particularly in books, 
is known to have been generally or ordinarily a total 
immersion." Hist. Inf. Bap., pt. ii, ch. ix, sec. 2. And 
its defense, p. 131. This pedobaptist author is more 
severe on his brethren, who try to prove that immersion 
was not the apostolic practice, than Baptists are. He 
styles it "a want of honesty." Again he says, "What 
has been said of this custom of pouring or sprinkling 
water in the ordinary use of baptism, is to be under- 



Baptism. 241 

stood only in reference to those ivestem parts of Europe, 
for it is used ordinarily nowhere else. The Greek 
church still uses immersion, and so do all other 
Christians in the world, except the Latins. 

"All those nations of Christians that do now or 
formerly did, submit to the authority of the bishop of 
Eome do ordinarily baptize their infants by pouring or 
sprinkling; but all other Christians in the world, who 
never owned the pope's usurped power, do and ever 
did, dip their infants in the ordinary use, * * * All 
the Christians in Asia; all in Africa, and about one 
third part of Europe are of the last sort.' 7 Hist. Inf. 
Bap., pt. ii, ch. ix, p. 376, ed. 3. 

He tells us that immersion, the apostolic practice, 
continued to prevail in all countries where the pope's 
usurped power did not prevail. 

The first case recorded, of pouring or sprinkling 
for baptism, is that of Novatian. "There is no earlier 
record, that Mr. Wall could discover, than in the case 
of Novatian, about the middle of the third century. 
This man while unbaptized, as Eusebius records (Eccles. 
Hist. I, vi, ch. 43), fell into a dangerous disease, and 
because he was very likely to die, was baptized in bed 
where he lay (en Minn perchuthinta — i. e., sprinkled over 
in bed, or water youred all over him) if that might be 
termed baptism. Novatian recovered; and the follow- 
ing circumstance preserves the view the church took of 
his baptism: The See of Rome became vacant A. D. 
251. Two persons were chosen to succeed; namely, 
Cornelius, 'chosen by the major part,' and this Nova- 

16 



242 The Church of Christ. 

tian, in a 'schismatical way.' Cornelius writes a long 
letter to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, in which he de- 
scribes the case of Novatian, and says, 'that Novatian 
came not canonically to his order of priesthood, much 
less was he capable of being chosen bishop.' Let the 
reader mark the reason assigned, 'for that all the 
clergy, and a great many of the laity, were against his 
being chosen presbyter, because it was not lawful (they 
said) for any one that had been baptized in his bed 
(Greek, as above, poured over) as he had been, to be 
admitted to any office of the clergy.' " Pengilly's 
Script. Guide to Baptism, p. 77. 

Dr. Wall again says: "In England there seems to 
have been some priest, so early as the year 816, that 
attempted to bring in the use of baptism by affusion in 
the public administration, for Spleman recites a canon 
of a council in that year: 'Let the priests know, that 
when they administer holy baptism, they must not 
pour the water on the head of the infant, but they 
must always be dipped in the font.' " Hist. Inf. Bap., 
vol 1, p. 714. 

Dr. George Waddington, an eminent church his- 
torian, says: "The ceremony of immersion, the oldest 
form of baptism, was performed in the name of the 
three persons of the Trinity." Ch. Hist., ch. n, sec. 3. 

B. B. Smith, bishop of the Episcopal church of 
Kentucky, says: "We have only to go back six or 
eight hundred years, and immersion was the only mode 
except in the case of a few baptized on their beds at 
the real, or supposed approach of death. 



Baptism. 243 

Immersion was not only universal six or eight hun- 
dred years ago, but it was primitive and apostolic. 
* * * The bowl and sprinkling are strictly Genevan 
in their origin ; that is, they were introduced by Calvin 
at Geneva." Hist. Baptism. 

We close the testimony from scholars and histo- 
rians of the Episcopal church, with the following from 
the Christian Commonwealth : 

11 There appeared in the Christian Commonwealth, 
London, England, March 1, 1889, the following an- 
swer to the query, 'Does the Greek word baptizo ever 
mean to sprinkle or pour?' " Inquirer. 

"Etymologically it can not mean to sprinkle or 
pour. Of course its present theological meaning is to 
either immerse, sprinkle, or pour, or rather that is the 
current use of the word. Nevertheless, to understand 
its original meaning, we must necessarily go back to 
the Greek language, and if our querist will consult the 
Greek lexicons he will find there is not a single stand- 
ard Greek lexicon, in any language, which gives the 
meaning to sprinkle or pour. All the lexicons speak 
practically the same thing, and say that it means to 
dip, plunge, immerse, etc. A recent writer made 
the following suggestion, which seems to have consid- 
erable in it: 'The three Greek words, viz., baptizo, 
meaning dip or immerse; rantizo, meaning scatter, or 
sprinkle; and eccheo, meaning pour, are not synony- 
mous words meaning the same thing, but are three 
different words, having three different meanings. These 
three words analyzed have the following forms: First, 



244 The Church of Christ. 

baptize; second, rantize; third, eccheize. And when 
translated, we have for the first, dip or immerse; for the 
second, scatter or sprinkle; for the third, pour. Now, 
as we had the anglicized form of the Greek word bap- 
tizo (the word baptize) I suggest we use the two Greek 
words rantizo and eccheo in their aglicized forms also, 
until they translate baptizo as they have rantizo and 
eccheo. We should never say baptize by immersion. 
How could a man be baptized in any other way? He 
must be dipped if baptized. To rantize or ecchize is 
not to baptize now, nor never was." Such is the 
united voice of the scholarship of the Episcopal church. 
(7) To ivhat has been said agrees the testimony of 
the scholars and historians of the Lutheran church. 

Dr. J. L. Mosheim (1695-1755): It will assist in 
appreciating what this distinguished scholar says, to 
know who he was. He was a preacher of great note. 
A theologian of renown. A historian of world wide 
fame. Was professor in Denmark and Brunswick. 
Also theological professor and chancellor of the uni- 
versity of Goettingen. He was author of over one 
hundred and fifty different works. 

In speaking of the first century he says: "The 
sacrament of baptism was administered in this century 
without the public assemblies, in places appointed and 
prepared for that purpose, and was performed by an 
immersion of the whole body in the baptismal font." Of 
the second century he says: "The persons that were to 
be baptized, after they had repeated the creed, con- 
fessed and renounced their sins, and particularly the 



Baptism. 245 

devil and his pompous allurements, were immersed 
under water and received into Christ's kingdom." 

Of the fourth century he says: " Baptismal fonts 
were now erected in the porch of each church for the 
more commodious administration of that initiating 
sacrament." Mclain's Mosheim, vol. 1, pp. 46, 69, 
and 121. 

De. T. A. W. Neander (1789-1860): He was 
doubtless the foremost church historian of his age. 
He was also theological professor in the univerity of 
Berlin for thirty-eight years. He says: "In respect to 
the form of baptism, it was in conformity with the 
original institution, and the original import of the 
symbol, performed by immersion, as a sign of entire 
baptism into the Holy Spirit, of being entirely pene- 
trated by the same." Ch. Hist., vol. 1, p. 310. And 
again, "Baptism was originally administered by immer- 
sion, and many of the comparisons of Paul allude to 
this form of administration." 

Once more, in his letter to Judd, an eminent 
Baptist, he says: "As to your question on the original 
rite of baptism there can be no doubt whatever, that in 
the primitive times the ceremony was performed by 
immersion, to signify a complete immersion into the 
new principle of life divine, which was to be imparted 
by the Messiah. When Paul says that through bap- 
tism we are buried with Christ and rise again with 
him, he unquestionably alludes to the symbol of dip- 
ping into and rising again out of the water. The 
practice of immersion in the first century was, beyond 



246 The Church of Christ. 

all doubt, prevalent in the whole church." Appendix 
to Judd's Review of Stuart. 

Dr. Winer: "Affusion was at first applied only 
to the sick, but was gradually introduced for others, 
after the seventh century, and in the thirteenth 
became the prevailing practice in the west." Lect. 
Christ. # Antiq. 

Van Collen says: u Immersion in water was gen- 
eral until the thirteenth century; among the Latins it 
was then displaced by sprinkling, but retained by the 
Greeks." Hist. Doct., vol. n, p. 303. 

Ealph Hospinian, who was the author of a history 
on the errors of popery, and also a history of Jesuits, 
says: "Christ commanded us to be baptized, by which 
word it is certain immersion is signified." Hist. Sac. 
L. 2, ch. ii, p. 30. 

Dr. J. C. W. Augusti (1772-1841), professor of 
theology in the university of Breslau and Bonn, says: 
"The word baptism accords to etymology and to usage, 
and signifies to immerse, submerge." Hinten's Hist. 
Bap . , p . 55 . And in his Archaeology, Augusti remarks : 
"Immersion in water was general until the thirteenth 
century among the Latins, it was then displaced by 
sprinkling, but retained by the Greeks." Arche., vol. 
v, p. 5; vol. vn, p. 229. 

J. C. L. Gieseler (1793-1854), theological pro- 
fessor in the university of Bonn and Goettingen, has 
this to say: "For the sake of the rich, the rite of 
sprinkling was introduced." Ch. Hist., Ger. Ed., vol. 
in, p. 274. 



Baptism. 247 

Dr. J. H. Kurtz, theological professor in the uni- 
versity of Dorpt, remarks: "Baptism was adminis- 
tered by complete immersion." And again, "Baptism 
was performed (third century) by thrice immersing, 
during which the formula of baptism was pronounced, 
sprinkling was only common in case of the rich." Ch. 
Hist., p. 119. 

Prof. J. Bohmer says: "The place of adminis- 
tering baptism was not the church, but a river, in 
which people were dipped in the presence of wit- 
nesses." Handbook on Bap., p. 141, Ingham's. 

These men, thus far quoted, all of them eminent 
Catholic and pedobaptist church scholars, historians, 
and theological professors, have, while practicing affu- 
sion, conceded to the Baptists the following points 
concerning the correctness of their position on the 
question of the "form" of baptism commanded by 
Christ: 

First. That the word (oaptizo) chosen to express 
the form of act, meant, always, to immerse. 

Second. That the apostles and primitive Chris- 
tians so understood its meaning, and so universally 
immersed till the middle of the third century. 

Third. That the first case of affusion for baptism 
was that of Novatian, and was performed thus because 
of his extreme sickness ; it was thought he would not 
recover. 

Fourth. From this time forward till the beginning 
of the fourteenth century sprinkling for baptism was 
allowed by the Roman Catholic party to the sick 



248 The Church of Christ. 

(called clinic baptism) and to a preferred class, the 
rich. 

Fifth. That in 1311 a council at Ravenna declared 
sprinkling and immersion indifferent. 

Sixth. That affusion is, and has always been, re- 
jected by the Greek church and all other Christian 
people who deny the power of the pope. 

These facts conceded as they are by the abettors of 
sprinkling ought to be enough to convince all candid 
men, that the will of the Lawgiver is complied with in 
nothing for baptism, but the immersion of the whole 
body in water. But we are not done with our proof 
from pedobaptist scholars that we are scripturally cor- 
rect in immersing. 

(8) Our eighth pr oof 'is based t on what the scholars and 
historians of the Presbyterian church have to say of the 
apostolic practice in baptizing. 

J. Gr. Altman (1697-1758), historian, divine, and 
professor of moral philosophy and Greek at Berne, 
says : "In the primitive church persons to be baptized 
were not sprinkled, but entirely immersed in water, 
which was performed according to the example of John 
the Baptist. " On I Cor. 15:29, sec. 8. 

Dr. Phillip Schaff, Ph. D., born 1819 and still 
living, author of many valuable works on church his- 
tory, the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious 
Knowledge ; and also professor of theology at Mercers- 
burg, Penn., has this to say: "The usual form (in 
the apostolic church) of the act was immersion, as is 
plain from the original meaning of the Greek, baptizein 



Baptism. 249 

and baptismos." And again: " Immersion, and not 
sprinkling, was unquestionably the original, nominal 
form (of baptism). This is shown by the very mean- 
ing of the Creek word baptidzo, baptisma, and the 
analogy of the baptism of John, which was performed 
in the Jordon (en), Matt. 3:6, compare with 16, also 
eis ton Jordanen (into the Jordan), Mark 1:9, further- 
more, by the New Testament comparisons of baptism 
with the passage through the Red Sea, I Cor. x:2, 
with the flood, I Pet. iii : 21 ; with a bath, Eph. v:26, 
Titus, iii: 5; with a burial and resurrection, Rom. 
vi:4, Col. ii: 12 ; finally by the general usage of eccle- 
siastical antiquity, which was always immersion, as it 
is to this day in the Oriental, and also in the Graeco- 
Russian churches, pouring and sprinkling being sub- 
stituted only in cases of urgent necessity, such as sick- 
ness and approaching death. " Hist. Apos. Ch.,p. 568. 

This frank and candid concession by one of the 
most distinguished pedobaptist scholars living ought 
to put to shame his less eminent coajutors, who are 
laboring to extort a meaning from the word, that it 
never had. 

J. A. Tueeetin (1671-1737), professor of church 
history at Greneva, remarks: "And indeed baptism 
was performed in that age and in those countries by 
immersion of the whole body into water." Com. on 
Rom. 6:3 and 4. 

P. A. Limboech, professor of theology in the uni- 
versity at Amsterdam, and an extensive writer, has 
this to say: "Baptism, then, consists in washing or 



250 The Church of Christ. 

rather immersing the whole body into water, as was 
customary in the primitive times." Syst. Div., 3, v., 
ch. 27, sec. 1 on Rom. 6:4. And again: "The apos- 
tle alludes to the manner of baptizing, not as practiced 
at this day, which is performed by sprinkling of water, 
but as administered of old in the primitive church, by 
immersing the whole body in water, a short continuance 
in the water, a speedy emersion out of the water. 
* * * Baptism is a figure and mark of our spiritual 
burial, for by that immersion into water, and continu- 
ance under the water which represents a burial, bap- 
tized persons express their being buried to sin. " Com. 
on Rom. 6:4. 

F. Spaukeim, author of a church history, who 
died 1701, says: "This rite of immersing and bring- 
ing out of the baptismal waters was common and pro- 
miscuous in the apostolic age, hence the apostle alludes 
to it as a rite common to all Christians. Rom. 6:4; 
Col. 12:12." Disput. De. Bap. pro. Martius, p. 19. 

"To be baptized is denominated by Paul as being 
buried, according to the ancient manner of baptizing ; 
for immersion is a kind of burial and emersion, a res- 
urrection, to which the apostle alludes. Col. 2:12. So 
Christ being baptized went up out of the water. Matt. 
3:16. The same is related concerning the Ethiopian 
eunuch. Acts 8:38." Dubiorum Evang., pt. 3, dub. 
24, sec. 2. 

"In the primitive church immediately subsequent 
to the age of the apostles, this (immersion) was un- 
doubtedly the common mode of baptism. The utmost 



Baptism, 251 

that can be said of sprinkling in that early period is 
that it was, in a case of necessity, permitted as an excep- 
tion to a general rule. This fact is so well established 
that it were needless to adduce authorities in proof of it. 
* * * It is a great mistake to suppose that baptism 
by immersion was discontinued when infant baptism 
became generally prevalent ; the practice of immersion 
continued even unto the thirteenth or fourteenth cen- 
tury. Indeed, it has never been formally abandoned, 
but is still the mode of administering baptism in the 
Greek church and in several of the Eastern churches." 
Ancient Christ. Ex., ch. 19, sec. 10. 

John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian 
church, says: "The word baptize signifies to immerse; 
and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the 
ancient church." Inst., S. 4, ch. 15, sec. 19. 

James MacKnight (1720-1800), for twenty years 
moderator of the general assembly of Scotland, author 
of many different works ; among which were commen- 
taries on the scriptures. He says: " Jesus submitted to 
be baptized — that is, buried under the water — by John, 
and to be raised out of it again, as an emblem of his 
future death and resurrection. * * * In like man- 
ner the baptism of believers is emblematic of their own 
death, burial and resurrection. * * * Planted to- 
gether in the likeness of his death. The burying of 
Christ and of believers, first in the water of baptism, 
and afterwards in the earth, is fitly enough compared 
to the planting of seed in the earth, because the effect 
in both cases is a reviviscence to a state of greater per- 
fection." Apost. Epis., note on Rom. 6:4, 5. 



252 The Church of Christ. 

De. Geo. Campbell (1719-1796), theological pro- 
fessor, historian, translator, and president of Marischal 
College, Scotland, remarks: "The word baptism, both 
in sacred and classical, signifies to dip, to plunge, to 
immerse. Had baptidzo been employed in the sense of 
raino, to sprinkle (which as far as I know, it never is, 
in any use, sacred or classical), the expression would 
doubtless have been, 'I baptize water upon you.' " 

De. Thomas Chalmees, a most eminent scholar 
and critic, says: "The original meaning of the word 
baptism is immersion. We doubt not that baptism 
was administered in the apostles' days by an actual 
submerging of the whole body under water. We 
advert to this, for the purpose of throwing light on the 
analogy that is instituted in these verses. Jesus Christ, 
by death, underwent this sort of a baptism by an im- 
mersion under the surface of the ground, whence he 
soon emerged again by his resurrection. We, by being 
baptized into his death, are conceived to have made a 
similar translation — in the act of descending under the 
water of baptism, to have resigned an old life, and in 
the act of ascending, to emerge into a second or new 
life," Lecture xxx, on Bom. 6:3-7. Such is the 
language of perhaps the most profound scholar the 
Presbyterian church has ever produced. 

Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614), professor of Greek at 
Geneva for fourteen years says: "This was the rite of 
baptizing, that persons were plunged into the water, 
which the very word baptizein, to baptize, sufficiently 
declares; which, as it does signify dimein, to sink to 



Baptism. 253 

the bottom and perish, so doubtless it is not epipolad- 
zein, to swim on the surface. For these three words 
epipoladzein, baptidzein and dunein are of different sig- 
nifications. Whence we understand it was not without 
reason, that some long ago insisted on the immersion 
of the j whole body in the ceremony of baptism; for 
they urge the word baptizein, to baptize." Annot. on 
Matt. 4:15. 

"In baptism we emerge out of a sepulchre of 
water and pass, as it were, into a new life." P. Van 
Mastricht, in Theoret. Prac. Theol., b. 7, ch. iv, sec. 
10. Again the same author says: "Immersion was 
used by the apostles and primitive churches." Rom. 
4:3, 4, 5. Ibid., sec. 9. 

James Basnage, a man of great learning, a church 
historian, who died in 1723, says: "This (the response 
of Pope Stephens in the year 754) is accounted the first 
law against immersion. The* pontiff, however, did not 
dispense with immersion, except in cases of extreme 
necessity. This law, therefore, did not change the 
mode of dipping in public baptism, as it was not till 
five hundred and fifty-seven years after that the legis- 
lature in a council at Ravenna in the year 1311 declar- 
ed immersion and pouring indifferent." Monumenta, 

vol. 1, Prefat. ch. v, sec. 4. 

G. Divdati (1576-1649), professor of Hebrew and 

theology at Geneva, remarks: "In baptism, being dip- 
ped in water according to the ancient ceremony, it is 
a sacred sign unto us that sin ought to be drowned in 
us by God's spirit." 



254 The Church of Christ. 

Eichaed Baxtek (1615-1691), an author of great 
repute, having written about one hundred and fifty-five 
works, among which is his celebrated "Saints Rest," 
says on Matt. 3:6: "We grant that baptism then (in 
primitive times) was by washing the whole body. In 
our baptism we are dipped under the water, as signify- 
ing our covenant profession, that as he was buried for 
sin, so we are dead and buried to sin." 

Dk. John W. Nevin, born 1803, ten years profes- 
sor of Hebrew and biblical literature in the theological 
seminary at Allegheny City, also president of the theo- 
logical seminary at Mercersburg, Penn., and an author 
of repute, and editor of the Mercersburg Review, said 
in the Review: "It needs but ordinary scholarship, 
and the freedom of mind unpledged to mere party 
interests, to see and acknowledge here (that the Bap- 
tists have) a certain advantage on the subject of bap- 
tism. The original sense of the word baptidzo is on the 
whole in their power. It corresponds with the idea of 
immersion much more than with the idea of sprink- 
ling." 

S. Cukcellous, a learned and celebrated theolo- 
gian and professor at G-eneva and Amsterdam, who 
died 1659, says: "Baptism was by plunging the whole 
body into water. Nor did the disciples that were sent 
out by Christ administer baptism afterward in any 
other way." B. v, ch. 2. 

D. Chamiekus, an extensive writer on systematic 
divinity, and professor at Montauban, who died in 
1621, remarks: "Immersion of the whole body was 



Baptism. 255 

used from the beginning, which expresses the force of 
the word baptize , whence John baptized in a river. It 
was afterwards changed into sprinkling, though it is 
uncertain when or by whom it commenced." Pan- 
starfc. Cathol., torn. 4 L. v, ch. 2, sec. 6. 

Venema: "The word baptizein, to baptize, is 
nowhere used in the scriptures for sprinkling." Inst. 
Hist. Eccl. Vet. and Nov. Test., torn, in., sec. 13, 136. 

H. Alting: "The word baptism properly signifies 
immersion; improperly, by a metonymy of the end, 
washing." Loci. Commun., pars, i, loc. 12. 

Tukeetin : ' 'The word baptism is of Greek origin, 
and is derived from the verb bapto, which signifies to 
dip, and to dye; baptizein, to baptize, to dip into, to 
immerse." Ins. loc. xix, quaes, xi, sec. 4. 

Dr. Bees: "Gr. Bapto et Baptidzo mergo et mer- 
gito. Voss Etym. To dip or merge frequently, to 
sink, to plunge, to immerge." "The word baptism is 
derived from the Greek baptidzo, and means literally 
dipping or immersing." Ency. Art. Bay. 

Witsius: "It can not be denied, that the native 
signification of the word baptein and baptidzein is to 
plunge, to dip." Aecon. Foecl. i, iv., c. 16, sec. 13. 

"It is certain that both John the Baptist, and the 
disciples of Christ, ordinarily practiced immersion." 
Econ. of the Cov., b. 4, c. 16, 13. 

J. G. Altman (1697-1758), professor of moral 
philosophy and Greek at Berne, says: "In the primi- 
tive church persons to be baptized were not sprinkled, 
but entirely immersed in water, which was performed 



256 The Church of Christ. 

according to the example of John the Baptist." On 
I Cor. 15, 29, sec. 8. 

De. L. Coleman, a church historian, born 1796, 
observes: "The term baptism is derived from the 
Greek baptidzo, with its derivatives baptismos and bap- 
tisma, baptism. The primary signification of the 
original is, to dip, to plunge, to immerse. The obvious 
import of the noun is immersion." Christ. Antiq. 
p. 255. 

J. F. Stapfer: " By baptism we understand that 
rite of the New Testament church commanded by 
Christ, in which believers, by being immersed in water, 
testify their communion with the church." Instit. 
Theol. Polem., torn, i, cap. in, sec. 1635. 

Jacques Saurin (1677-1730), author of twelve 
volumes of sermons and other works, says: "Paul 
says, 'we are buried with him by baptism into death;' 
that is the ceremony of wholly immersing us in water 
when we were baptized." Sermons, vol. in, p. 171. 

Theodore Beza (1529-1605), than whom no Pres- 
byterian scholar is more historic, says: "But baptidzo 
signifies to dip, since it came from bapto, and since 
things to be dyed are immersed." On Matt. 3:13. 

Dr. M'crie: "We do not hold that the word bap- 
tize signifies to pour or sprinkle. This was never our 
opinion." On Bap., p. 32. 

Here is the testimony of thirty of the most eminent 
scholars, historians, and divines of the Presbyterian 
church that have ever lived, all giving their testimony 
one way. They tell us that the primitive baptism was 



Baptism. 257 

by immersion, and prove it, first, by the word used, 
and, second, by the comparisons of baptism to a burial, 
a bath, a washing, etc. 

They declare that sprinkling and pouring were 
departures, allowed at first only in extreme cases of 
sickness, and that immersion was the rule till the 
council at Ravenna, in 1311, made them indifferent, 
thus creating the privilege to choose between three 
pretended forms for one act. How anyone can stand 
up and argue that sprinkling is obeying in the act 
Christ commanded, I shall not undertake to say, but 
will subjoin the testimony of still another eminent 
Presbyterian as the best answer that could possibly be 
given. 

Dr. George Campbell, a distinguished Pres- 
byterian divine in Scotland, says: "Another error in 
disputation, which is by far too common, is, when one 
will admit nothing in the plea of an adversary to be of 
the smallest weight. * * * I have heard a dis- 
putant of this stamp, in defiance of etymology and use> 
maintain that the word rendered in the New Testament 
baptize, means more properly to sprinkle than to 
plunge, and, in defiance of all antiquity , that the former 
method was the earliest, and for many centuries the 
most general, practice in baptizing. One who argues 
thus in this manner, never fails, with persons of knowl- 
edge, to betray the cause he would defend; and though, 
with respect to the vulgar, bold assertions generally 
succeed as well as arguments, sometimes better, yet 
a candid mind will disdain to take the help of a false- 
hood, even in support of the truth.' ' Lecture 10. 

17 



258 The Church of Christ. 

(9) Our ninth 'proof is based on the concessions of 
the historians of the Congregational church. Though 
practicing sprinkling and pouring for baptism, they 
concede that immersion is the New Testament baptism. 

Dr. James Murdoch (1776-1856), a graduate of 
Yale, professor of languages in the university of Ver- 
mont, and professor of rhetoric and church history in 
the theological seminary of Andover, and author of 
many valuable works, says: "The baptistries were 
properly buildings adjacent to the churches, in which 
the catechumens were instructed, and were a sort of cis- 
terns into which water was let at the time of baptism, 
and in which the candidates were baptized by immer- 
sion." Eccl. Hist., vol. 1, p. 281. 

Prof. L. L. Paine, D. D., professor of ecclesias- 
tical history in the theological seminary at Bangor, in 
his examination of the class in church history in the 
the year 1875 pursued the following order, as published 
a few days later in The Mirror, a congregational paper. 
"Are the Baptists historically right!" At the anni- 
versary of our theological seminary at Bangor, a few 
days since, the class under examination in church his- 
tory gave some answers which struck me as extremely 
remarkable. The questions of the professor, and 
replies of the students, were substantially as follows: 

"Q. What was the apostolic and primitive mode 
of baptism? A. By immersion. 

"Q. Under what circumstances only was sprink- 
ling allowed? A. In cases of sickness. 



Baptism. 259 

" Q . When was the practice of sprinkling and pour- 
ing generally introduced ? A. Not until the fourteenth 
century. 

"Q. For what reason was the change adopted ? A. 
As Christianity advanced and spread in colder lati- 
tudes, the severity of the weather made it impracticable 
to immerse. 

"The professor of church history approved the an- 
swers, which faithfully represented his teachings, and 
none of the clergymen present seemed to call the state- 
ment in question. Yet if such are the facts, the Bap- 
tist are historically correct, and we as a denomination 
are wrong, both in our literature and practice. " 

Peof. Paine, himself adds: "It may be honestly 
asked by some, was immersion the primitive form of 
baptism; and if so, what then? As to the question of 
fact, the testimony is ample and decisive. No matter 
of church history is clearer. The evidence is all one 
way, and all church historians of any repute agree in 
accepting it. We can not claim even originality in 
teaching it in a Congregational seminary. And we 
really feel guilty of a kind of anachronism in writing 
an article to insist upon it. It is a point on which 
ancient, mediaeval and modern historians alike, Catho- 
lic and Protestant, Lutheran and Calvinist, have no 
controversy. And the simple reason for this unanimity 
is that the statements of the early fathers are so clear, 
and the light shed upon these statements from the early 
customs of the church is so conclusive, that no historian 
who cares for his reputation would dare to deny it, and 



260 The Church of Christ. 

no historian who is worthy of the name would wish to. 
There are some historical questions concerning the 
early church on which the most learned writers disa- 
gree; for example, the question of infant baptism, but 
on this one, of the early practice of immersion, the 
most distinguished antiquarians such as Bingham, 
Augusti, Coleman, Smith (dictionary of the Bible), 
and historians, such as Mosheim, Gieseler, Hase, Man- 
der, Milman, Schaff, Alzog (Catholic), hold a common 
language. The following extract from Coleman's An- 
tiquities very accurately expresses what all agree to: 
'In the primitive church, immersion was undeniably 
the common mode of baptism. The utmost that can 
be said of sprinkling in that early period is that it was, 
in case of necessity, permitted as an exception to a 
general rule. This fact is so well established that it 
were needless to adduce authorities in proof of it.' 
As one further illustration we quote from Schaff's 
apostolic church : 'As to the outward mode of admin- 
istering this ordinance, immersion, and not sprinkling, 
was unquestionably the original, normal form.' But 
while immersion was the universal custom and abridg- 
ment of the rite was freely allowed and defended in 
cases of urgent necessity, such as sickness and ap- 
proaching death, and the peculiar form of sprinkling 
thus came to be known as 'clinical' baptism, or the 
baptism of the sick. It is somewhat significant that 
no controversy of any account ever rose in the church 
on this question of the form of baptism, down to the 
reformation. And hence it is difficult to determine with 



Baptism. 261 

complete accuracy just when immersion gave way to 
sprinkling as the common church practice. The two 
forms were employed, one as the rule, the other as the 
exception, until Christianity traveled northward into 
colder climates, the exception silently grew to be the 
rule.' As late as the thirteenth century, immersion 
still held its ground as is shown in a passage in the 
Summa Theologica, of St. Thomas Aquinas, where the 
arguments in favor of the two modes of baptism are 
compared, and the conclusion is drawn that immersion 
is the safer because the more common form (quia hoc 
habet communiorem usum). Three centuries later, 
in the time of the reformers, sprinkling had become 
common, and even quite universal ; though Calvin speaks 
of the different forms of baptism in a way which seems 
to imply that immersion was by no means obsolete. So 
that Dr. Schaff puts the date quite early enough, we 
think, when he says, that 'not until the end of the thir- 
teenth century did sprinkling become the rule, and im- 
mersion the exception.' It is to be remarked also, that 
this change occured only in the Western or Latin 
church. In the Greek church, immersion has remained 
the rite to this day." 

Such is the testimony of the historians of the Con- 
gregational church. It is all one way. 

(10) Our tenth proof that immersion, not sprink- 
ling, was the act commanded by Christ, is based on 
the testimony of the scholars and historians of the Metho- 
dist church. We shall not attempt to explain why they 
practice sprinkling for baptism, and at the same time 



262 The Church of Christ. 

admit that Christ commanded otherwise. To me, it 
inexplicable, and I therefore recoil from the undertak- 
ing. 

With them, the ecclesiastical history of Mosheim, 
the Lutheran historian, is made the basis of church his- 
tory, since his works are made the text-book for their 
ministerial students. And more, since they have 
republished his history in this country. 

We have seen that Mosheim declares that, "In the 
first and second centuries baptism was administered by 
the primitive churches by a total immersion of the 
believer in water." 

Martin Ruter, president of Augusta college, and 
Gregory brought out in 1833 the Gregory & Ruter 
Church History. They say on page 34, that in the 
first century: " The initiatory rite of baptism was usu- 
ally performed by immersing the whole body in the 
baptismal font, and in the entire periods of Christian- 
ity was permitted to all who acknowledged the truths 
of the gospel, and promised conformity to its laws." 

Second century. "Baptism was publicly per- 
formed twice a year. The catechumens (or probation- 
ers for baptism) assembled in the church on the great 
festivals of Easter and Whitsuntide, and after a public 
declaration of their faith, and a solemn assurance from 
their sponsors that it was their intention to live con- 
formably to the gospel, they received the sacrament of 
baptism. This rite was performed by three immer- 
sions, and the body was divested of clothes. In order 
to preserve decency in the operation, the baptismal 



Baptism. 263 

font of the women was separated from that of the men, 
and they were as much as possible attended by the 
deaconesses of the church. Baptism by aspersion was 
permitted to the sick ; and in cases where a sufficient 
quantity of water for immersion could not be procured. 
The sign of the cross was made use of in this rite ; and 
a solemn prayer was uttered on consecrating the bap- 
tismal water. " Gregory & Euter's Church History, 
page 51. 

John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of the 
Wesleyan Methodist in 1729, has this to say: "Buried 
with him, alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing 
by immersion," on Rom. 6:4. And again, "The 
ancient manner of baptizing by immersion is manifestly 
alluded to here," on Col. 2:12. In his journal for 
Georgia, February 21, 1736, he says: "Mary Welch, 
aged eleven days, was baptized according to the custom 
of the first church and the rule of the church of Eng- 
land, by immersion." Thus John Wesley, the founder 
of Methodism gives his unqualified testimony to the 
fact, that baptism in the apostolic church was by im- 
mersion. 

Adam Claek, L. L. D., F. S. A. (1760-1832), the 
celebrated and standard commentator of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church, says: "It is probable that the 
apostle here alludes to the mode of administering bap- 
tism by immersion, the whole body being put under the 
water." In Loco. "When he (the person baptized) 
came up out of the water, he seemed to have a resur- 
rection to life. He was, therefore, supposed to throw 



264 The Church of Christ. 

off his old gentile state, as he threw off his clothes, and 
to assume a new character, as the baptized generally 
put on new or fresh garments." Com. on Rom. 6:4. 
"That the baptism of John was by plunging the 
body (after the same manner as the washing unclean 
persons was) seems to appear from those things 
which are related of him ; namely, that he baptized in 
Jordan, that he baptized in Enon, because there was 
much water there, etc." Com. at the end of Mark. 
"Buried, etc., alluding to the immersion practiced in 
case of adults, when the person appeared to be buried 
under the water, as Christ was buried in the heart of 
the earth; his rising again the third day, and their 
emerging from the water was an emblem of the resur- 
rection of the body, and a total change of life." Com. 
on Col. 2:12. 

' 'But as they received baptism as an emblem of 
death, so they received it as an emblem of the resur- 
rection into eternal life in coming up out of the water. 
Thus they are baptized for the dead, in perfect faith of 
the resurrection." Com. on I Cor. 15:29. Thus we 
see that the founder of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
her authorized historians and her standard commenta- 
tors, declare that the apostolic baptism was by immer- 
sion of the whole body in water. 

(11) Our eleventh proof, that immersion, not sprink- 
ling or pouring, is the act commanded bg Christ, is based 
on the concurrent testimony of all standard encyclopedias ; 
they give unbiased testimony. Brand's: "Baptism 
(Greek bapto, I dip) was originally administered by im- 



Baptism. 265 

merison, which act is thought by some necessary to the 
sacrament." 

Chamber's: "Baptism, in theology formed from 
the Greek baptidzo, or I dip, or plunge." "Some are 
of the opinion that sprinkling for baptism was begun 
in cold countries. It was introduced into England 
about the beginning of the ninth century." 

Americana: "Baptism (that is, dipping, immers- 
ing, from the Grreek baptidzo), was usual with the Jews 
even before Christ." "In the time of the apostles, the 
form of baptism was very simple. The person to be 
baptized was dipped in a river or vessel with the words 
which Christ ordered, and to express more fully his 
change of character, generally adopted a new name." 

Ecclesiastica : "Whatever weight, however, may 
be in these reasons, as a defense for the present prac- 
tice of sprinkling, it is evident that during the first 
ages of the church, and for many centuries afterward, 
the practice of immersion prevailed." 

Metropolitan: "We [readily see that the literal 
meaning of the word baptism is immersion, and that 
the desire of resorting again to the most ancient prac- 
tice of the church, of immersing the body, which has 
been expressed by many divines, is well worthy of be- 
ing considered." 

Penney: "The manner in which it was performed 
appears to have been at first by immersion." 

Rees: "In primitive times this ceremony was 
performed by immersion. 



?? 



266 The Church of Christ. 

National: "The manner in which the rite was 
performed appears to have been at first a complete 
immersion." And of the early custom of the English 
church, he remarks: "It was the practice of the 
English from the beginning to immerse the whole 
body." 

Beitannica: "Several of our Protestent divines, 
flying into Germany and Switzerland during the bloody 
reign of Queen Mary, and returning home when Queen 
Elizabeth came to the crown, brought back with them 
a great zeal for the Protestant churches beyond the 
sea, where they had been sheltered and received, and 
having observed that at Geneva, and other places, bap- 
tism was administered by sprinkling, they thought 
they could not do the church of England a greater ser- 
vice than by introducing a practice dictated by so 
great an authority as Calvin." A close and impartial 
scrutiny of his, will show that while prior to the four- 
teenth century, affusion was allowed in cases of severe 
sickness, and occasionally to the rich, and that while 
the council at Ravenna in 1311, made sprinkling indif- 
ferent, it was left for the church founded, by Mr. Cal- 
vin, to pass the first canonical law, making sprinkling 
the rule. And, too, his church is in no small degree 
responsible for the wide spread departure among pedo- 
baptists from the plain command of Christ in a posi- 
tive ordinance. 

Edinburgh Encyclopedia: "In the time of the 
apostles, baptism was very simple. The person to be 
baptized was dipped in a river or vessel, with the 



Baptism. 267 

words which Christ has ordained, and to express more 
fully his change of character generally assumed a new 
name." "It was not till 1311 that the legislature in a 
council held at Ravenna declared immersion or sprink- 
ling to be indifferent." "In this country (Scotland), 
however, sprinkling was never practiced in ordinary 
cases before the reformation. From Scotland it made 
its way into England, in the reign of Elizabeth, but 
was not authorized by the established church." "In 
the assembly of divines, held at Westminster in 1643, 
it was keenly debated whether immersion or sprinkling 
should be adopted ; twenty-five voted for sprinkling, 
and twenty-four for immersion ; and even that small 
majority was attained at the earnest request of Dr. 
Lightfoot, who had acquired great influence in the 
assembly." It is proper to state that this assembly 
was formulating what is known as "The Westminster 
confession of faith," and also that Dr. Lightfoot was 
president of the assembly and cast the deciding vote 
that made sprinkling the law of baptism in the Presby- 
terian church. To this act, the wide spread diffusion 
of sprinkling for baptism among the pedobaptists is 
largely indebted. The encyclopedias are all one way, 
and testify in perfect agreement to one fact, namely, 
"That in the primitive apostolic church, baptism was 
administered by an immersion of the whole body in 
water." We may, therefore, say that the usus loquendi 
of baptizo is to immerse. 

To these witnesses, eminent in learning, from the 
the Roman Catholic, and all prominent pedobaptist 



268 The Church of Christ. 

communions, might be added many more, but these 
are deemed sufficient for all well disposed thinkers. 
Now let us look at the points in which they are all 
agreed. 

(a) That the lexicons give a correct definition of 
the term baptizo when they say it means to immerse. 
To this they all agree. 

(&) They all agree that the apostles, and the 
whole church, understood the act commanded by 
Christ to be the immersion of the whole body in water, 
and that they so practiced it during the first and 
second centuries. 

(c) They all agree that sprinkling for baptism 
began to be used in extreme cases of sickness or sup- 
posed approaching death, about the middle of the 
third century, and that in consequence it was called 
"clinical baptism." 

(d) They all agree that immersion continued to be 
the rule, and sprinkling the exception, until the council 
at Ravenna in 1311 made them indifferent. 

(e) They all agree that, even then, sprinkling 
grew and obtained favor only in the western or Roman 
Catholic church, and that it is still rejected by the 
Greek Catholic church, and all other Christians who 
reject the usurped power of the pope. 

(f) They all agree that it was not until the refor- 
mation, and that too, by the Presbyterian general 
assembly, in 1643, as set forth in the Westminster 
confession of faith, that sprinkling was canonized as 
the law, and immersion the exception. 



Baptisjn. 269 

(g) They agree that from this time od sprinkling 
was practiced freely by all pedobaptist churches. 

The testimony of these men is of great weight, 
inasmuch as they belong to communions of people 
which now practice that which they frankly admit is of 
purely human origin. Sprinkling and pouring are 
post-scriptural and extra-scriptural. They can not meet 
the requirements of our Savior to baptize and to be 
baptized. But it will be noticed that these are prac- 
ticed by communions of Christians which, like the 
doctrines that they practice, are both post-scriptural 
and extra-scriptural. The church of Christ has ever 
rejected them as of human origin, and has persistently 
taught that obedience consisted in conforming to the 
command as given in the word of God. This is essential 
to church membership, and to the greatest reward here 
and hereafter. 

According to the rules laid down awhile ago, from 
Ernesti and Blackstone, let us try these so-called 
modes of baptism by inserting them into a few passages. 
Take the baptism of Jesus ( Mark 1:9), ' 'And it came to 
pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth, of 
Gralilee, and was baptized of John in the Jordan, — was 
sprinkled of John, was poured of John, was immersed of 
John in Jordan." The latter is in harmony with the 
laws of language, while the former two destroy the laws 
of language and make ridiculous the meaning. One 
more example. "Or, are ye ignorant that all we who 
were baptized, — sprinkled, or poured, ox immersed, — into 
Christ Jesus, were baptized — sprinkled, or poured, or 



270 The Church of Christ. 

immersed — into his death? We were buried therefore 
with him through baptism — sprinkling, or pouring, or 
immersing into death." Rom. 6:3, 4. These are suffi- 
cient to show that the substitution of either sprinkling, 
or pouring in the place of the word baptize destroys the 
meaning, and in many instances makes it absurd. If 
such were meanings of the word they would be per- 
fectly harmonious renderings of it. But it is time to 
consider the next element necessary to Christian 
baptism. 

Fourth. — The administrator of baptism. — The notion 
prevails to a large extent, that baptism administered by 
anyone meets the requirements of the command. But 
the scriptures clearly teach otherwise. There is no 
record of anyone administering baptism, except those 
who were either directly commissioned from heaven or 
by the church. John, who first introduced the ordi- 
nance, was commissioned of God (John 1 : 33 ) , and Christ 
and the apostles were baptized of him. The apostles 
and the seventy were ordained and sent out by Christ, 
and finally to the church was committed the gospel 
and the ordinances for keeping. It would seem self- 
evident from these considerations that the authority to 
baptize is lodged in the church. This perhaps would 
never have met with opposition, but for the fact that 
those churches which have originated far this side of 
the canon of the New Testament are forced, in the very 
nature of the case, to seek to justify their authority 
for baptizing. 



Baptism. 271 

They are founded on the presumption that the 
church apostatized — a doctrine which we -shall have 
occasion to examine into later on — and hence needed 
reformation. This plea forced them to derive their 
ordinances and ordinations from the Roman Catholic 
church. Now, the scriptures do not recognize the 
Roman Catholic church as a succession of the church 
of Christ, but on the contrary, the word of God speaks 
of it as "the man of sin" and "the son of perdition," 
the "old serpent" and "he that is opposed to God," 
etc. Certainly this antichrist was never the custodian 
of the gospel and the ordinances, and no communion 
of people can derive authority to baptize from that 
institution which is so strongly denounced in the 
scriptures. It is therefore necessary for pedobaptists 
and others founded on the plea of reformation to 
attach little importance to the administrator of bap- 
tism. It is a question of church or no church with 
them, since all are agreed that where there is no bap- 
tism, there can of course be no church membership. 
Here is a case brought out by Dr. Graves, in his 
"Introductory Essay" to Orchard's Hist. For. Bapt., 
volume I, pages 9, 10, 11, which illustrates the point. 
"In the General Assembly of the N. S. Presbyterians, 
which met in Buffalo, New York, May, 1854, this query 
was introduced : Are Romish baptisms and ordinations 
valid? A committee of junior and senior patriarchs 
was sent out to report an answer. They failed to 
agree. The majority reported negatively. But there 
were sundry gray-haired doctors, who saw the logical 



272 The Church of Christ. 

consequences that lay behind such a decision, and 
indeed, any decision they as pedobaptists could make; 
and those consequences would certainly be precipitated 
upon them by their Baptist friends and Catholic foes. 
The reports were read in the assembly, and a warm 
discussion ensued. Unfortunately very little of that 
discussion has been given to the public ; but the posi- 
tions taken by the two parties were substantially these : 
The majority reported that all ordinances at the hands 
of Romish priests were invalid, because the Romish 
Catholic church was no church of Christ, and no part 
or branch of Christ's church; but manifestly antichrist 
— the scarlet harlot riding on the beast with seven 
heads and ten horns, drunk with the blood of saints; 
the baptisms and ordinations of such an apostate body 
are null and void ; and to prononce them valid, is to 
pronounce the Romish church the church of Christ; 
and more, to involve Presbyterians and all Protestant 
sects (Baptists are not Protestants; in the modern 
application of the term it means those founded on 
reformation) in the guilt of schism, since they rent the 
body of Christ when they came out of Rome! 

"But the party who sustained the minority report, 
or were unfavorable to a decision, urged, on the other 
hand, if we deny the church of Rome to be a true 
church, and decide that her baptisms and ordinations 
are invalid, then do we to all intents and purposes 
unchurch ourselves, unless we can baptize the ashes of 
Luther and Calvin, from whom we have received our 
baptisms and ordinations! If the baptisms and ordi- 



Baptism. 273 

nations of antichrist, of the man of sin, and son of 
perdition, are invalid, then Luther and Calvin were 
unbaptized, as were all the members that composed 
the first churches of the reformation, then were they 
unordained, and consequently had no authority to 
baptize their followers, or ordain other ministers to 
follow them; in a word, all Protestant societies are 
unbaptized bodies, and consequently no churches of 
Christ, since a body of unbaptized persons, however 
pious, can not be considered a church ; all Protestant 
ministers are both unbaptized and unordained, and 
consequently unauthorized to preach officially and 
administer the ordinances. Thus we see the trilemma 
into which the query precipitated them. 

"1. To decide that 'antichrist, 7 'the man of 
sin' 'the mother of harlots' is a true church of Christ, 
would be a monstrous solecism. But this would con- 
vict all Protestant sects of sin, and destroy at once 
every claim they could set up to be churches of Christ ; 
for they confess themselves schismatics. 

"2. To decide that the Eomish apostasy is not the 
true church of Christ, is to decide that all her ordi- 
nances are invalid, and consequently that all Protestant 
societies are bodies of unbaptized persons, and there- 
fore no churches of Christ, and all Protestant ministers 
are both unbaptized and unordained, and consequently 
unauthorized either to preach or administer the ordi- 
nances. 

"3. To say we can not decide a question so mani- 
fest will arouse the attention of the people, and awaken 

18 



274 The Church of Christ. 

their suspicions at once, that there is a great wrong 
and a great failure about Protestant churches some- 
where. " 

Finding that they could not extricate themselves 
from this labyrinth of fatal consequences, they moved 
an indefinite postponement of the question. And let 
no one suppose for a moment that the question has 
yet been answered by them. Some thirty years later, 
when the general assembly met in Cincinnati, the same 
question, with a like division and like results, was 
before the body. And more, what is true in this 
regard of the Presbyterians, is also true of all other 
pedobaptist churches, since at first they came from 
the Roman Catholic church. This is precisely why 
Baptists do not receive their baptism — even when it is 
immersion. It is of Romish authority, and not by the 
authority of the church to whom alone Christ gave the 
command to baptize. As the Roman Catholic church 
is not of divine origin — but of human ; originating in 
the fourth century — and strongly denounced in the 
scriptures, it is certain she was never divinely commis- 
sioned to teach and baptize, and having no authority 
from God in these matters, she could confer none upon 
those coming out of her by reformation. It is not 
the question, that there are no Christian people in 
these communions of people, that is involved. They 
may all be Christians so far as that is concerned. It is 
the question of the source from which they have 
derived their ordinances. Rome being antichrist, 
and not the church, never had the ordinance, and 



Baptism. 275 

hence could not confer them upon anyone, however 
pious such a one might be. 

Hence it is the duty of the church to reject that 
which God in strong terms condemns as opposed to 
him, and to keep the ordinances as they were delivered 
to her by the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit working 
through the apostles and first ministers of the gospel. 

Therefore, to meet the requirements of the com- 
mand to baptize, and to be baptized, there must be 
(a) a believer on Christ as the subject; (b) a con- 
fession of faith in the act of obedience; (c) an 
embodiment of the fact intended — death, burial, and 
resurrection — in the act performed, hence immersion, 
the thing signified by the word used; and (d) there 
must be an administrator acting for and in the name 
of a true church. If these, or any one of them is 
absent, then the baptism fails to meet the requirements 
of the command, and can not be reckoned by the church 
as obedience entitling to membership in the church of 
Christ. 



276 The Church of Christ. 

CHAPTER IV.— Continued. 

THE FUNCTIONS OP THE CHURCH. 
III.— The Lord's Supper. 

TPON no question perhaps is there so much prej- 
^-^ udice against Baptists as that of the Lord's 
supper. A moment of reflection will convince any 
thoughtful person that such prejudice is unfounded. 
Certainly Baptists injure no one here, unless it be 
themselves. Scarcely a community can be found but 
what there are persons in it who are kept out of the 
Baptist church by this prejudice. Now, Baptists know 
this, and certainly, if there was no principle of truth 
involved, it would be very unwise in them to persist 
in a practice that keeps not a few good people from 
uniting with their congregations. It is pertinent, there- 
fore, to inquire into the principles that govern the 
ordinance of the Lord's supper. All Christian people 
are agreed on one thing concerning it ; that is, that it 
is an institution in the church, and as such, none but 
church members have a right to partake of it. But 
the difference of opinion is on what constitutes the 
church, and how we are to become members of the 
same. Starting from the point of view that all Chris- 
tian peoples, of whatever name, order, doctrine, and 
practice, in the aggregate make up the church of 
Christ, those holding this view reach the conclusion 
that those holding membership in any one of the 
so-called churches are entitled to the Lord's supper in 



The Lord's Suffer. 277 

all the others. While on the other hand those who 
start from the view point that the church is an organic 
unity, and as such must be essentially agreed in doc- 
trine and practice in all the local congregations of the 
same, arrive at the conclusion, that only such should 
be admitted to the Lord's supper as hold membership 
in the one church. The question involved is simply 
that of church membership. 

1. Then all that is required in the scriptures 
as essential to church membership must be regarded as 
fundamental law, and in the very nature of the case as 
going before the right to partake of the Lord's supper. 
We have previously noticed at some length the things 
that are essential to membership in the church, and 
shall only enumerate some of them here. 

(1) Eegeneration is prerequisite to baptism. 
This was seen heretofore. No one who has not the 
new life imparted to the soul can meet the require- 
ments of our Lord's command to be baptized. Said 
Christ: "A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." 
Matt. 7:18. An unregenerate heart is a corrupt tree, 
and as such can not bear the good fruit of obedience 
in baptism. This is so obviously true that it seems no 
one could be found who would deny it, and yet, we 
must remember that both infant baptism and the 
baptism of adults in order to the remission of sins, 
dispute this fundamental principle laid down by our 
Lord. In the preservation of the essential unity that 
belongs to the economy of redemption, there can be 



278 The Church of Christ. 

but one class or character of subjects for baptism. If 
that class is infants, then adult believers are excluded, 
since there is no similarity in the two classes of sub- 
jects, much less a unity of character. If that class is 
adults who are to be baptized in order to the remission 
of sins, then both infants and regenerate believers are 
excluded, since there is neither similarity or agreement 
of character between them. But on the other hand, 
if regenerate believers constitute that class, then both 
infants and adults who are baptized in order to the 
remission of sins are excluded for the same reasons. 
We have seen in the foregoing chapters that only 
believers were admitted to baptism by John, by Christ, 
and by the apostles; hence infants are not subjects of 
baptism. They are not commanded to be baptized. 
While the church is commanded to baptize, let it be 
remembered that those she is to baptize are commanded 
to be baptized. There is no command to the infant 
to be baptized. God commands only rational, respon- 
sible persons, having a will and the power to obey or 
disobey. Hence those baptized in babyhood have 
never obeyed Christ in baptism; even admitting in 
their favor that sprinkling is baptism. They are not 
on that account church members, and can not, there- 
fore, scripturally approach the Lord's table. So, 
also, adults who are baptized in order to the remission 
of sins, have not obeyed the command to be baptized. 
We have before seen that repentance and faith were 
reckoned as evidences of new life. If the faith is not 
the product of the new principle planted in the heart, 



The Lord's Suffer. 279 

it is dead faith, and can not lead to acceptable obedi- 
ence. If it is the product of the new principle in the 
heart, and this it must be, since it is a new exercise 
of the soul, then regeneration has taken place, and 
consequently the actual remission of sins. Such only 
as were led by this new principle to seek obedience 
through baptism, were admitted by John, by Christ, 
and by the apostles. Hence the first great cardinal 
principle essential to church membership, and, there- 
fore, prerequisite to the Lord's supper, is regeneration. 
(2) But as regeneration is prerequisite to bap- 
tism, so, also, is baptism prerequisite to church mem- 
bership. No one thinks of reckoning the unbaptized 
as church members. Upon this, that there can be no 
church membership where there is no baptism, all are 
agreed. But as the parting line begins with the sub- 
ject of baptism, so it comes to greater divergence when 
it reaches the question of what baptism is. So, long 
before we come to the church, Christian people are 
very much divided on how we are to become members. 
Evidently God proposes but one way, but man has 
many. God's way is by the proper kind of a subject; 
one who loves God, one who is born of God, seeking 
and receiving scriptural baptism. This we have just 
seen has four elements. By those elements the follow- 
ing classes of persons are declared not to have been 
scripturally baptized, {a) Infants. They have not faith. 
(&) Adults, who are baptized in order to the remission 
of sins. They are confessedly not proper subjects 
for baptism. They are not renewed in heart. In 



280 The Church of Christ. 

fact, those holding the view deny that there is any 
such change as a renewal of heart, (c) Those who 
are sprinkled or poured for baptism. Such have 
changed the act commanded. This is confessed by all 
pedobaptist scholars. What right has anyone to 
claim membership in the church of Christ on the merits 
of an act that they admit is not in the command to 
baptize? (d) Those who are baptized by churches 
which have derived their authority to baptize from the 
Roman Catholic church, and not from Christ. Not 
one of the above classes has complied with the 
requirements of the command to baptize and to be 
baptized, and can not, therefore, be reckoned as mem- 
bers of the church of Christ. It is not a question of 
whether such are Christians or not. Happily, that does 
not depend on either baptism or church membership, 
but on faith in Christ. It is simply the question of 
church membership, which always depends on valid 
baptism. That valid baptism is subsequent to regen- 
eration, and antecedent to church membership, and 
hence so to the Lord's supper, will, we apprehend, 
appear sufficiently clear in the light of the following 
considerations : 

(11) First. The Lord's supper is a rite in the 
church of Christ, to be enjoyed by the members of the 
same. 

Second. To become a member of the church of 
Christ, one must be scripturally baptized. 

Third. Therefore scriptural baptism is antecedent 
to partaking of the Lord's supper. This can be dis- 



The Lord's Supper. 281 

puted by no one. Now, when we consider the things 
essential to scriptural baptism, we see at a glance how 
much is required by the Lord as preparation for par- 
taking of the supper. To admit that all that is called 
baptism meets the requirements of the command, is to 
become partaker of all the evils that follow a departure 
from God's word. We must suffer the scriptures to 
define their own commands, and must be satisfied to 
accept and comply with such, if we would be partakers 
of the privileges offered. 

(22) No one can be entitled to membership in 
the church of Christ until scrip turally baptized. This 
is so apparent, that proof to sustain it seems useless. 
The New Testament provides for the church, and cer- 
tainly must provide for the conditions of membership 
in it. It is said, that on the day of Pentecost, those 
which "received his word were baptized, and the 
same day there were added unto them about three 
thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). All were added who 
were baptized. None were added who were not bap- 
tized. Therefore their baptism preceded their church 
membership, as cause precedes effect. This agrees 
with Paul to the Corinthians: "For in one spirit 
were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or 
Greeks, whether bond or free ; and were all made to 
drink into one spirit" (I Cor. 12:13). In the spirit of 
Christ, having been made partakers of the divine 
nature through regeneration, were they all baptized 
into the one church. 



282 The Church of Christ. 

(33) It follows, therefore, that scriptural baptism 
is antecedent to church membership and participation 
in the Lord's supper, having been placed in that order 
by Christ, and being so observed by the apostles and 
early Christians. Had the apostles and early churches 
not understood that this order was fundamental law, 
they might have granted to the unbaptized Jews the 
privilege of partaking of the supper. They claimed a 
right to partake of all that was given by the Lord. 
But they were not admitted, because they would not 
submit to the conditions upon which the privilege 
rested. Christ commanded it to be observed after 
scriptural baptism, by placing it in that order in the 
commission. Immediately following baptism, the 
church is commanded to "teach them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 
28 = 20). The order of tjie commission is: (a) Make 
disciples, (b) Baptize them, (c) Teach them the 
observance of all things commanded. This is the law 
to govern the church to the end of the age. No one 
can be baptized till first discipled, and no one can 
partake of the Lord's supper till first scripturally bap- 
tized. This order the apostles observed. "And they 
continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fel- 
lowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer" 
(Acts 2:42). Notice the order of proceedings. Peter 
preached, men were convicted and cried out, and Peter 
commanded repentance and baptism. Then receiving 
his words, they were baptized and added to the church 
and as members of the church they continued in the 



The Lord's Supper. 283 

apostle's teachings and fellowship, and in breaking 
bread. This order is as vital now as then, and this 
steadfast abiding in the teachings and fellowship of the 
gospel is as much a fundamental qualification for 
breaking bread in the supper now, as it was on the 
day of Pentecost, and following thereafter. 

(44) Scriptural baptism is, in the nature of the 
case, antecedent to church relations and the Lord's 
supper, in order to preserve the inseparable association 
of the underlying truths symbolized, viz., spiritual 
birth must precede spiritual sustenance. One must be 
born before they can partake of the sustenance neces- 
sary to sustain the independent life into which, by 
birth, they come. The analogy is, one must be born 
of the spirit before he can partake of the spiritual food 
given to sustain the spiritual life. The birth is first ; 
the sustenance of the new life second; the afterthought. 
Before the spirit birth the souls of men subsist on sin, 
but by the birth of the spirit they are separated from 
this method of living, and are prepared to subsist on 
spiritual things. Now this constitutes one fact only ; a 
change of our moral nature from sin and hatred, to 
love and oneness, and hence is symbolized by one act. 
In baptism, we say; in symbol, that we are dead to sin 
and alive to Grod through faith in the merits of the blood 
of Christ. What part of the baptism of an unconscious 
infant symbolizes this fundamental doctrine of the 
atonement? Indeed, what part of sprinkling or pour- 
ing, or even of immersion in order to the spirit 
birth, has reference to this underlying truth? All who 



284 The Church of Christ. 

will, must see at a glance that all these fail in this 
respect to set forth the one fact. 

But on the other hand, as this new life draws its 
daily sustenance from Christ "who is the bread of life," 
by vital union with him through faith, and as this sus- 
tenance is a constant necessity, the Lord's supper 
which symbolizes the source of this life, also, in its oft 
repeatedness, declares the constant necessity of suste- 
nance for the new life. Hence, Christ said "this do in 
remembrance of me." In remembrance of his death 
as the source from whence cometh daily our supply of 
spiritual food and life. The essential doctrines of the 
atonement are summed up by Paul in two points, "who 
was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for 
our justification." Rom. 4:25. The ordinances of Grod's 
house set forth in monumental form these vital elements 
of the atonement. Baptism declares, by our being 
thereby buried with Christ, that he was dead and buried ; 
and, in being therefrom resurrected with him by the glory 
of the Father, it sets forth the fact that through him we 
have come into new relations of life. The supper de- 
clares, in monument, that Christ being raised from the 
dead for our justification and life, "death hath no more 
dominion over him," and on account of the same, he is 
a daily source of spiritual life to us. To pervert this 
divine order, is to make the ordinances declare a false- 
hood, and to destroy the weighty meaning with which 
they were vested by the Eedeemer as vehicles of the 
vital truths of his offering for sin. Hence the import- 
ance of preserving this divine order. All this isfunda- 



The Lord's Supper. 285 

mental law, and is absolutely essential to a proper ob- 
servance of the Lord's supper. These are principles 
that take the precedence over the privilege or right to 
commune, since they are essential to church member- 
ship, and membership goes before the supper. 

2. 'Each reproduction of the church of Christ in a 
local congregation of saints, furnishes its members the 
privilege of obeying Christ in all things required of his 
people in the scriptures. If this is true, it reduces the 
plea of "open communion' ' to one or both of two things. 
(a) To a mere sentiment; something without command 
or support in the scriptures. Or (b) to a confession by 
those who make it, to the fact that they do not belong 
to a New Testament church. If one belongs to a con- 
gregation that furnishes the opportunity to obey in all 
things required, then there is no occasion to seek for op- 
portunities elsewhere to obey. If there is occasion to 
do so, it grows out of the fact that the local assembly 
where the membership is held does not furnish the re- 
quired privileges, and is not therefore the church of 
Christ. The only wise and scriptural thing to be done 
in this instance is, to cease connections with such at 
once, and immediately seek membership with a*New 
Testament church. This principle will, we apprehend, 
appear obvious by the following considerations : 

(1) Each local congregation of the church of 
Christ is made the custodian of the Lord's supper, and 
for the purity of the same, is held strictly accountable. 
True, the "open communionists" say we are not to 
judge. The apostle says the church must judge. Here 



286 The Church of Christ. 

is a sharp conflict. One theory is based on sentiment ; 
the other on duty and facts. Let us examine into the 
law laid down by the apostle in this respect. He says: 
1 'I wrote unto you (referring to a previous letter which 
is lost) in my epistle to have no company with 
fornicators; not altogether with the fornicators 
of this world, or with the covetous and extor- 
tioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go 
out of the world; but now I write unto you not to keep 
company, if any man that is called a brother (a church 
member) be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, 
or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such 
a one no, not to eat. For what have I to do with judg- 
ing those that are without? Do not ye judge them that 
are within (the members), whereas them that are with- 
out Glod judgeth? Put away the wicked man from 
among yourselves." I Cor. 5:9-13. Eemember that 
this is instruction to a local congregation of the 
church, "the church of God which is at Corinth." I 
Cor. 1:2. Several duties which become laws are laid 
down here: (a) The duty to judge the Christian char- 
acter of any who are named brethren; that is, of any 
who are members of the body. The church is required, 
not only to know that they have met the conditions im- 
posed by the fundamental laws to membership, in 
coming in, but also, to judge the worthiness of the 
character maintained since coming in. This is imper- 
ative. It is the law laid down by the Holy Spirit, 
which it is much wiser to follow, than to follow the 
sickly sentiment of "open communionists that we 



The Lord's Suffer. 287 

must not judge." (b) The duty to expunge those 
judged unworthy. "With such a one no, not to eat." 
But how is the church to obey this requirement, 
if it is a body having no definite and final power in 
these matters? But this the local church has. Paul 
recognizes and enforces this principle in the command 
to ' ' put away the wicked man from among yourselves. ' ' 
(c) The church is thus made custodian of the Lord's 
supper, and for the purity of the same is held account- 
able. Nor is this a duty peculiarly laid down for the 
church at Corinth only. It extends to each local church. 
In writing to the church at Thessalonica, the apostle 
says: u Now we command you, brethren, in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves 
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not 
after the tradition which they received of us." II Thes. 
3:6. No person or church ever received the episco- 
pacy, baptismal salvation, infant baptism, or sprinkling 
and pouring for baptism, from Paul, and all who walk 
after such are walking disorderly, and not according 
to his teachings. From such he solemnly commands a 
withdrawal. 

(2) Hence, heresy destroys the possibility of 
communing at the Lord's table. Such a course de- 
stroys the essential unity of the church, and is posi- 
tively forbidden by the Holy Spirit. "The cup of 
blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the 
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not 
a communion of the body of Christ? Seeing that we, 
who are many, are one bread, one body; for we all 



288 The Church of Christ. 

partake of the one bread." I Cor. 10:16, 17. There 
is one cup representing the blood of Christ, once shed. 
One bread, representing the body of Christ, once 
broken. And one church, commemorating through 
communion this oneness belonging to Christ, and this 
unity of those who are called by his grace into the one 
body — church. To preserve this unity the Holy Spirit 
lays down the following prohibition or law. "But in 
giving you this charge, I praise you not, that ye come 
together, not for the better, but for the worse. For 
first of all, when ye come together in the church, I 
hear that there be divisions among you ; and I partly 
believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, 
that they which are approved may be made manifest 
among you. When, therefore, ye assemble yourselves 
together, it is not possible to eat the Lord's supper." 
I Cor. 11:17-20. The church at Corinth had mixed 
the supper up with the sacrifices offered to idols, and 
had thereby perverted its design. This was heresy, 
and destroyed the possibility of eating the Lord's sup- 
per. A similar perversion in modern times, is that 
which makes it a kind of love feast, something by 
which we show our love one for the other. Such, in 
the apostle's view, makes it impossible to eat the 
Lord's supper. And he not only applies this principle 
to a perversion of the design of the supper, but he 
extends it to a division on doctrines in general. "And 
if any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note 
that man, that ye have no company with him, to 
the end that he may be ashamed. And yet count 



The Lord's Supper. 289 

him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a 
brother.'' II Thes. 3:14, 15. And to the church at 
Rome, he lays down the same law. "Now I beseech 
you, brethren, mark them which are causing divisions 
and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine 
which ye learned; and turn away from them." Rom. 
16:17. And to Titus, he says: "A man that is heretical, 
after a first and second admonition refuse." Tit. 3:10. 
All of this is positive law laid down by the Holy Spirit, 
and affects the Lord's supper to that extent that it 
makes it impossible to partake of it with such a condi- 
tion of things existing. 

Now, upon two considerations at least, communion 
between any two denominations of Christian people is 
impossible, without violating the law laid down by the 
Holy Spirit. 

(a) On account of the fact that one denomi- 
nation has no authority of discipline over the mem- 
bers of any other denomination. This function can 
only be exercised over the membership of the church 
communing. The Holy Spirit forbids, in the laws 
just mentioned, the extension of the privilege beyond 
this bound. And in the spirit of the doctrine of 
any and every denomination of Christian people, 
the Lord's supper is reduced to this conception, but 
violated in the practice of most of them. Any one 
denomination would exclude from its number all 
such as held to the doctrines and practice of any other 
given denomination. No matter how much those 
holding the "open communion" theory, preach the 

19 



290 The Church of Christ. 

"invisible church/' after all, the doctrine of such 
people when reduced to its last analysis is, there is 
no church membership outside of their respective 
denomination. We are not complaining at this. We 
approve the principle. Certainly no intelligent person 
would belong to any church, unless he believed it was 
an exact reproduction of the church of Christ, since it 
is the plain duty of all Christian people to belong to 
the church of Christ. We said a moment ago that each 
denomination in the spirit of its doctrine, practically 
denied membership in the church to the members of 
all other denominations. Let us take two denomina- 
tions and illustrate the idea. Baptists would at once 
exclude from their number all who hold such doctrines 
as those held by the Methodist church, south. The 
grounds of the exclusion would be heresy. This would 
not deny that such were Christians. It would simply 
assert that such were disorderly in doctrine and practice 
and were, therefore, occasions of stumbling. On the 
other hand, the Methodist church, south, would exclude 
from their number all such as hold the doctrines and 
practice of the Baptists, and for the same reasons just 
named. In the Discipline [Ed. 1887], page 158, answer 
3, we have this law laid down: "If a member of our 
church endeavor to sow dissension in any of our 
societies, by inveighing against either our doctrines or 
discipline, such person so offendiug shall be first 
reproved by the senior minister or preacher of the 
circuit, and if he persist in such pernicious practice, he 
shall be dealt with as in cases of immorality." For 



The Lord's Suffer. 291 

cases of immorality, the Discipline prescribes exclusion. 
Now, every Baptist in all the land inveighs against both 
the doctrine and Discipline of the Methodist church, south, 
and are therefore guilty of that for which they would 
rightfully exclude their own members. And in like 
manner would they treat the members of any other 
denomination. This reduces their conception of the 
church of Christ, to that of the Methodist church only, 
and forces upon them the principle of "restricted com- 
munion." In the same edition of the Discipline, page 
234, this principle is acknowledged thus : "But no person 
shall be admitted to the Lord's supper among us who 
is guilty of any practice for which we would exclude a 
member of our church." Let them plead for "open 
communion" and the general church membership as 
much as they may, the fact stands announced in their 
Discipline, in principle, that there is no membership in 
the church of Christ apart from membership in the 
Methodist church, south, and no qualifications entitling 
to partake of the Lord's supper outside of the same. 
And let no one conclude that this is a characteristic 
peculiar to the Methodist church, south, alone. The 
doctrine of all other denominations when reduced to its 
final analysis, teaches the same facts. 

Mb. A. Campbell says: "We do not recollect 
that we have ever argued out the merits of this 'free 
and open communion system.' But one remark we 
must offer in passing, that we must regard it as one of 
the weakest and most vulnerable causes ever plead; 
and that the great Mb. Hall, as he is called, has, in 



292 The Church of Christ. 

his defense of the practice, made it appear worse than 
before. In attempting to make it reasonable, he has 
only proved how unreasonable and unscriptural it is." 
Mill. Harb., vol. 2, p. 393. This commits his church 
to the same view, namely: That there is no church 
membership and qualifications for communion apart from 
membership in the same. Whatever plea is made for 
"open communion" by any people, is reducible to 
one of two final facts, ignorance of the principles 
involved, or a lack of sincerity. Why should anyone 
invite you to commune with them, when you are guilty 
of that for which they would immediately exclude you 
from their fellowship were you a member with them! 
And why should they do this in positive violation of the 
spirit of their own doctrine, and the law laid down by 
the Holy Spirit, prohibiting communion where there is 
no right and power of discipline? Thus does "open 
communion" make void the word of Grod, and involve 
its advocates in irreconcilable contradictions. 

(b) But in the second place, "open communion" is 
declared impossible between any two denominations on 
account of heresy. As above cited, the apostle declared 
it was not possible for the church at Corinth to eat the 
Lord's supper, because some of their number were 
heretical on the design. Now this was a condition 
existing, not between two denominations of widely 
different doctrines and practice, but simply in a local 
congregation of the one church. If this heresy made 
it impossible for them to eat the Lord's supper, then 
much more so, is it not possible for any two denomina- 



The Lord's Supper. 293 

tions to commune one with the other, because of the 
certainty of the existence, with one or the other, of a 
more general heresy. To any thoughtful mind there 
can be but one denomination of Christians exactly 
holding the doctrine and practice of the New Testa- 
ment. Take the Methodists and the Baptists as an 
illustration of the thought. If the Methodists are an 
exact reproduction of the New Testament church in 
doctrine and practice, then the Baptists are not, and 
vice versa. The one will lack as much of being a 
New Testament church as it lacks of agreement with 
the one which is at one with the New Testament. In 
that much it will be heretical, and communion between 
the members of the two can not be had without violat- 
ing the laws laid down by the Holy Spirit. All that is 
left that either can do, is to restrict the privilege to its 
own members. The duty to surrender rests on the 
heretical party, in which event it ceases to be a separate 
denomination, and becomes indentified as the church 
of Christ, in which event there is no longer occasion 
for the plea of "open communion." Unity and fellow- 
ship in doctrine is essential to communion. On the 
day of Pentecost and thereafter "they continued stead- 
fastly in the apostle's teaching and fellowship, and in 
the breaking of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42. 
To say that the church is divided into so many warring 
sections as there are different denominations; each 
antagonizing and seeking to devour all the others; 
teaching conflicting doctrines, and practicing conflict- 
ing ordinances; baptizing different classes of subjects 



294 The Church of Christ. 

and for different designs ; being constituted on widely 
conflicting plans, is a travesty on the "one Lord, one 
faith, and one baptism,'' that is simply shocking to the 
thoughtful mind. If all Christian people are by virtue 
of that fact members of the one church, as the theory 
of open communion holds, then why will any one of 
these sects receive the members of any other in a given 
community with more joy, usually, than accompanies 
the reception of the newly converted sinner? Accord- 
ing to the theory, are they not already members of 
Christ's church! How much then has their condition 
been bettered by the change? Has the party receiving 
them more to offer than membership in the church of 
Christ? No. The facts in the case are, that each 
denomination reduces the New Testament idea of the 
church to that of itself, and refuses in the final test to 
regard others as members of the church at all. Were 
this not true there would be no occasion for the existence 
of such, and no reason could be assigned why the Pres- 
byterians of this city would receive the writer from the 
Baptist church to membership with them, other than 
that in the last analysis, they do not regard him as 
belonging to the church. Open communion is not only 
a violation of the laws laid down by the Holy Spirit, 
and a perversion and sacrifice of the principles of all 
who practice it, but it is an open falsehood, declaring 
that unity and fellowship exists where it does not exist. 
But, says one, are we not commanded "to let a 
man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread and 
drink of the cup?" I Cor. 11:28. Yes, most assuredly 



The Lord's Supper. 295 

we are. But who is considered in this instruction? 
Anyone but New Testament churches? We think not. 
This letter was addressed to "the church of Grod which 
is at Corinth. 7 ' I Cor. 1:2. They had come in in the 
right manner. The church was founded by the apostle 
himself. Of that he says: "According to the grace of 
God which was given unto me, as a wise master builder, 
I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. 
But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon." 
I Cor. 3:10. Certain then it is, that they had come in 
scripturally. But the professed Christian character 
must be maintained, hence the church is commanded 
to judge and exclude the outwardly unworthy. I Cor. 
5:9, ft. These are the outward conditions that the 
church must know, but as her knowledge can not pen- 
etrate the hearts of the members and discover the spir- 
itual conditions therein, the individual member is 
commanded to make this examination for himself. 
That theory that makes other use of this passage, is 
confessedly hard pressed for support. It shows to what 
extent men will go in order to sustain a false theory. 

Every " open communion 77 service ever held was a 
perversion of the principles underlying church mem- 
bership, a positive violation of divine law, and an 
indorsement of heretical doctrines. But let us observe 
in closing this part of the argument, that it is a plea to 
justify the claim of those holding it, to recognition as 
churches of Christ. Before the reformation, in the six- 
teenth century, no such plea was ever heard. Prior to 
that time there were but two parties : Those holding to 



296 The Church of Christ. 

the New Testament doctrines and practice, and the 
Eoman Catholics. The former denounced the latter as 
the man of sin, the son of perdition, and hence refused 
to recognize the ordinances of the same. This refusal 
formed the occasion for the edicts against the rebap- 
tized and the rebaptizers. 

The difference was so wide and so marked, that on 
either side no one thought of recognizing the claims of 
the opposite party. But when the reformation came 
on, and men began to create for themselves churches, 
the plea arose for recognition of them as representatives 
of the church of Christ. Had there never been a ref- 
ormation, there would still have been the church of 
Christ. The reformation did not produce the church, 
since the church existed first. Nor did the reformation 
produce the ordinances, since they were previously in 
existence. But coming out of Eome, and with ordi- 
nances inherited from Rome, it was necessary to clothe 
upon the same with a form of sound words, and thus 
seek for them Christian recognition. This is the foun- 
dation of the plea for "open communion." 

3. The design of the Lord's supper. It is a memo- 
rial feast, and looks to but one fact; deliverance from 
the bondage, pollution, and guilt of sin, through Christ. 
Christ said: "This do in remembrance of me.' 7 Luke 
22:19. And Paul adds: "For as often as ye eat this 
bread, and drink this cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death 
till He come." I Cor. 11:26. 

These passages set forth the design of the ordi- 
nance. It is a proclamation of the broken body and 



The Lord's Supper. 297 

shed blood of Christ as the source of the spiritual life 
of the communicant. His spiritual life has its cause in 
the atonement, and draws its daily sustenance from the 
ever living Christ, who, as alive from the dead, perpet- 
ually offers his blood in heaven as the grounds justify- 
ing his people to life and favor with God. Humbly 
the communicant remembers his sins as the cause of 
Christ's death, and at the same time joyfully proclaims 
that death, as the source of life to a lost world. 

But this design has been greatly perverted. The 
open communionists asks: "If we can't commune on 
earth, how are we to commune in heaven? " This 
makes a good plea to prejudice those whose highest 
law of interpreting God's word is human sympathy. 
Some people profess more sympathy for their fellow 
men than they show respect for God's truth. The 
Lord's supper is an institution which belongs to the 
church on earth. To "proclaim his death till he come," 
is the limitation of its observance. In heaven there 
will be no occasion to proclaim his death by means of 
ordinances. If so, there will be ordinances given for 
that purpose, just as the supper is given to proclaim 
the death of Christ here on earth in the midst of those 
for whom He died. And just as the supper is adjusted 
to the conditions of membership in the church here, so 
will those — if there are to be any — in heaven, be 
adjusted to the conditions of entrance into heaven. 
The pious pedobaptist expects to commune, in whatever 
kind of communion may be provided in heaven, with 
his infant child, whom he had baptized, but with whom, 



298 The Church of Christ. 

even though he were a member of the same church, 
he never communed here. 

So this plea based on sympathy recoils on its advo- 
cates. But again, it is urged "that the communion 
shows brotherly love one for the other. ' ' While it is 
not denied that those who commune at the Lord's table 
ought to love one another, it is denied that the supper 
is intended to prove such love. A man is commanded 
to love even his enemies, yet he is not to prove this by 
a perversion of the design of the Lord's supper. There 
are many other ways in which he may prove his love 
for others, but never by communing with them. This 
is sickly, sentimentality, and is designed for prejudice 
only. 

The church at Corinth had become heretical in the 
perversion of the design, and had eaten, not discerning 
the Lord's body, for which "cause many among them 
were weak and sickly, and not a few slept." I Cor. 
11:30. For their perversion of the ordinance, which 
was an abuse of Christ's death, God had providentially 
afflicted many of them with bodily disorders, and not a 
few of them with death. In a sermon not long ago 
the writer made this use of the passage, and a very 
estimable and cultured pedobaptist lady, who was 
present, seemed to think that he had overdrawn the 
meaning; that the reference was certainly only to 
spiritual conditions. Even that would be a great loss 
of divine power and glory to the church, and would be 
sufficient warning to trample not on holy ground with 
unholy feet. Is it strange that God should cut short 



The Lord's Supper. 299 

the days of those who had professed to love Christ, yet 
had despised his death as proclaimed by this monu- 
mental shaft of the same? It is one law of interpret- 
ing the meaning of words, that if the author's use of a 
word is not clear in its connections with a given con- 
text, then compare his use of the same word in other 
contexts. To the writer there is no doubt but that 
Paul means by AV.uwvrat, translated sleep, physical death. 
But that this is certain may be learned by comparing 
I Corinthians 15:6, where, in speaking of the five 
hundred who saw Christ, he uses the same word and it 
is translated in the same way. Now it is certain in this 
case that he has reference to those having died between 
the points of time, viz., the meeting on the mountain 
in Galilee and that of his writing, a period of more 
than a quarter of a century. Let any dare to pervert 
the supper who may, the church can not. 

4. The elements to be used in the Lord's 
supper. These are two, bread and wine. Unleavened 
bread, made of one kind of flour. Wine, one kind, 
the pure juice of the grape. These have been greatly 
perverted, especially by the Roman Catholic church, 
which holds to the theory of transubstantiation, i. e., 
that is, the change of one substance into another sub- 
stance. The doctrine is, that the elements of bread 
and wine in the sacrifice of the mass, by the consecra- 
tion of the priest, are transubstantiated, i. e., changed 
iu their essence, into the very body and blood of 
Christ, while the visible form and the appearance of 
bread and wine remain to the sight, touch, and taste. 



300 The Church of Christ. 

The miraculous change is supposed to take place 
simultaneously all over the world, day after day, 
wherever the priest pronounces the words of institu- 
tion, — "this is my body," "this is my blood." The 
first to set forth the doctrine with any degree of clear- 
ness, was Paschasius Radbertus in the ninth century, 
and by Lanfrane in the eleventh century. It was not 
dogmatized and made a part of the creed of the Romish 
church till the Lateran council 1215, under Pope In- 
nocent III. 

The adoption of the doctrine led to the withdrawal 
of the cup from the laity to avoid possible profanation 
by spilling the blood of Christ, so that they stand for- 
ever robbed of obedience to Christ in this ordinance. 
As stated, the doctrine is based on a literal interpreta- 
tion of the words, "this is my body," etc. To this it 
may be replied: (a) The word "is" may indicate a 
figure as well as a real relationship between the sub- 
ject and the predicate, and often means "represents" 
or "sets forth," in both the Septuagint and in the 
Greek New Testament. 

In the former we have an example in Genesis 
41:26:27: "The seven good kine are seven years; and 
the seven good ears are seven years," etc. Now no 
one would think of saying, the seven cows, or the 
seven ears of corn, were literally seven years of time. 
They simply "represent" or "set forth" that much 
time as here used. Remember this is the same verb 
"is." In the New Testament it is so used not a few 
times. One example will suffice to show its meaning. 



The Lord's Supper. 301 

" And the field is the v/orld ; and the good seed, these 
are the sons of the kingdom ; and the tares are the sons 
of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them is the 
devil; and the harvest is the end of the world." 
Matt. 13:38,39. Here the verb "is" is used to set 
forth or represent the thing intended, and not literally 
the thing itself. Just so in the expression "this is my 
body" "is" sets forth or represents the comparison to 
his body which was not yet literally broken, and his 
blood which was not yet literally shed, (b) Other 
figurative uses show this to be the meaning here. In 
Matthew 26:27, it is said: "And he took a cup, and 
gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all 
of it; for this is my blood," etc. And in Luke 22:20: 
"And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, 
this cup is the new covenant in my blood," etc. Com- 
pare I Corinthians 10:16 and 11:25. In all these in- 
stances the "cup" is used instead of "wine." Thus 
they used the figure of synecdoche continentis pro con- 
tento. And yet no Catholic assumes the transubstan- 
tiation of the vessel. But it is just as logical from this 
use of the term "is" to conclude that the "cup" is 
transubstantiated as to conclude from the same use of 
"is" that the "wine" is literally changed into blood. 

(c) From the use of ordinances in both testaments 
it is certain that "bread" and "wine" are used repre- 
sentatively. Everywhere this is the use of ordinances. 
This we have abundantly seen to be the case in bap- 
tism, and it was no less so with the passover feast which 
Christ and his apostles had just eaten. It was so with 



302 The Church of Christ. 

the sin offering, etc., of the Old Testament. True 
there is an underlying truth "except ye eat the flesh 
and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life 
in you," but this is done through faith. It is not 
literally eating his physical body and drinking his phy- 
sical blood, in the elements of the supper. 

5. When, and how often to commune. As to 
the time in the day, when the supper is to be observed, 
there seems to have been no set time with the apostles. 
It is argued by some that because it was instituted at 
night, and is called a "supper," it should be observed 
after nightfall. It would seem that this argument 
had no more real support than mere time correspond- 
ence. It is not a meal in any sense, and is only called 
a "supper" from the fact that it was instituted in con- 
nection with the "passover supper," a real meal, but 
not as forming any part of the same. If the time in 
the day had anything to do with the supper, as a mere 
matter of correspondence, then the day in the week 
(Thursday) would have as much place as the hour in 
the day. The first recorded mention of the supper has 
no time note in it. "And they continued steadfastly 
in the apostles 7 teaching and fellowship, in the break- 
ing of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42. It is cer- 
tain that the "breaking of bread" here mentioned, re- 
fers to the Lord's supper, because it is classed with 
the other acts of worship. But nothing is said either 
as to the time in the day, or how often they broke 
bread. From the mention made in Acts 20:7, some 
have concluded that each congregation should 



The Lord's Supper. 303 

commune every first day of the week. "And upon 
the first day of the week, when we were come 
together to break bread," etc. While there is no ob- 
jections to a people communing on the first day of 
every week, this passage does not necessarily teach 
that even the church at Troas did it. Luke and Paul 
and others in their company, were hurriedly passing by 
and are included in the "we" of the coming together. 
If the word "every" was in the passage, then it would 
be definite. Here is a parallel. The church to which 
I preach comes together on the first day of the week to 
break bread. They never assemble for that purpose 
on any other day. And should someone be passing, 
and stop to worship with us, and afterward write a his- 
tory of the matter, he would say, "when we had come 
together on the first day of the week to break bread." 
The statement would be too indefinite for any one to 
affirm that we did so on the first day of every week. 
The Holy Spirit has laid down this law to govern that 
matter, "this do, as oft as ye drink it." I Cor. 11:25. 
This leaves the repeatedness of it to the sanctified 
common sense of the church. 



304 The Provisions Made for the 

CHAPTER V. 

HISTORICAL PERMANENCY OF THE CHURCH. 

I. The Provisions Made for the Historical Permanency of 

the Church. 

THE church sent into the world, accompanied by 
the divine presence, was to be a religious personel 
of Christ in bearing unimpeachable testimony to the 
divine origin of Christianity, and as a religious figure 
was to serve as the highest miraculous credential to the 
reproduction of the Christ life in the hearts of men, and 
as a religious force was to verify in herself the repro- 
duction of the supernatural involved in the divine ori- 
gin, and in the historical permanency of Christianity. 
These ends could not be accomplished by any amount 
of human force, as they obviously lay in a moral realm, 
far above the highest moral plain ever reached by the 
best of the race unaided by the creating and sustaining 
power of sovereign grace. The disintegrating power of 
sin in each member of the race, is sufficiently predom- 
inant to effectually destroy his power for good, and to 
permanently mar the beauty, and destroy the perfec- 
tion of anything he might undertake to accomplish. 
Nor would the association of large numbers together, 
lessen this weakness of the race, but upon the contrary, 
it would ferment, and intensify the propensities to evil, 
by augmenting the causes that incite to sin. The his- 
tory of the race shows that where large numbers of 
men are brought to mix and mingle together, without 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 305 

the bonds of supernatural grace to subdue the natural 
tendencies of mankind, the result has been disastrous 
to social purity, and moral integrity. And yet in the 
infinite wisdom of God, he chose to make man a mes- 
senger to man, bearing to him the glorious gospel of 
salvation. 

Could there be any hope of permanency of a work 
intrusted to beings, the corruption of whose very na- 
tures cried out against the work! Most assuredly there 
could not without first lifting those to whom the work 
was to be intrusted up out of their natural condition, 
and making them to become partakers of the nature of 
him by whom the work is inaugurated. Thus changed, 
the new nature would cry out; not now against God, 
but against the power of sin seeking to drag it down 
from the holy presence and joyful communion of God. 
But even the gift of this new nature to those to whom 
the work is intrusted is not a sufficient and satisfac- 
tory guaranty of the permanency of the cause. God 
will not leave those intrusted with a mission of so much 
importance to him, and themselves, and the world, to 
do the work alone. He will provide for the divine 
presence to accompany them, and be colaborer with 
them. The work of man often fails, but that which 
God takes hold on to accomplish, shall be done. It is 
becoming, therefore, in Christian people to seek to 
understand the foundation upon which the mission of 
the church stands, and the relations involved in that 
mission. 

20 



306 The Provisions Made for the 

1. The covenant of redemption is the foundation 
of the mission of the church. This covenant is spoken 
of in the scriptures as the " decrees of God," the 
"counsel of God," the "purposes of God," the "will 
of God," etc., and is the plan according to the provi- 
sions of which, God proceeds toward men in saving them 
from sin, and fitting them to dwell in his holy presence. 
The chief end in view is to bring men on the way to 
heaven. This plan comprehends all the means to be 
used, and the philosophy of the history to be wrought 
out in the use of those means. It is self-originated; 
that is, it is the product of the divine heart and mind, 
without the advice of other orders of intelligence. It 
was formed in eternity, and comprehends its choices 
from the beginning throughout the entire history of 
time. The Holy Spirit says by the mouth of the 
prophet Isaiah, "Remember the former things of old; 
for I am God, and there is none else ; I am God, and 
there is none like me; declaring the end from the 
beginning, and from ancient times things that are not 
yet done; saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do 
all my pleasure; calling a ravenous bird from the 
east, the man of my counsel from a far country; yea, 
I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have pur- 
posed, I will also do it." Isa. 46:9-11. As the au- 
thor and authority upon which the whole matter rests, 
God announces the greatness and exclusiveness of his 
own being. Andasproof of this, he has just said: "De- 
clare ye, and bring it forth; yea, let them take counsel 
together; who hath showed this from ancient time? who 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 307 

hath declared it of old! have not I the Lord? and there 
is no God else beside me. A just God and a Savior; 
there is none beside me." Isa. 45:21. He announces 
the compass of his counsel, "declaring the end from 
the beginning/' so that there is nothing new in the 
history which was not known to God, and permanently 
provided for in the counsel. No condition arising in 
time should cause to come to naught, one single thing- 
provided for in the counsel of God. "My counsel shall 
stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Whatever, then, 
God purposed to do, shall be done because purposed of 
God. "I have purposed, I will also do it." And it is 
well for us to remember that purposing to do, God 
also purposes how it shall be done. 

The means and the method of the means to be 
used, are as much a part of the purpose as the end in 
view. If the end in view in the purposes of God is to 
save men and bring them on the way to heaven, that 
end is none the more certain of accomplishment, than 
is the use of the means and methods by which it is to 
be reached. "The counsel of the Lord standeth fast 
forever. The thoughts of his heart to all generations." 
Ps. 33:11. 

Nor can the counsel of God be changed or sup- 
planted, either in the means to be used, the methods of 
their use, or in the end contemplated in the divine 
mind. Like himself, the 'counsels of God are immu- 
table. No change can be made in them, not even by 
God himself. 



308 The Provisions Made for the 

Paul says of them: " Wherein God, being mind- 
ed to shew more abundantly unto the heirs of the 
promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed 
with an oath, that by two immutable things in which 
it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong 
encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of 
the hope set before us." Heb. 6:17,18. Whatever 
things are provided for in the counsels of God are 
sure, not only because the counsels are of God, but 
because, also, he has sealed them by an oath in which 
it is impossible for him to lie. 

2. Let us then notice some of the things provided 
for in this compact. 

(1) The counsels of God provide for the 
atoning sacrifice of Christ. Indeed, so prominent 
is he in' this character, that he is said to be the 
covenant of the father. "Thou art my servant, 
in thee will I be glorified." Isa. 49:3. Here Christ is 
presented in the character of a servant ; one who is ren- 
dering service in humble submission to a directing sov- 
ereign will over him in this character. This was a part 
of the things to which, as contracting for man, and in 
man's stead, he agreed with his father. Paul speaking 
of him in this character has this to say: "Have this 
mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who 
being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be 
on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking 
the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of 
men, and being found in fashion as a man, he hum- 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 309 

bled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, 
the death of the cross." Phil. 2:5-8. 

In this righteous humiliation, acting for his people 
and as representing them in his work, he is presented 
as Grod's covenant with his people. "I the Lord have 
called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, 
and will keep thee, and will give thee for a covenant of 
the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Isa. 42:6. But 
notice that he is given in the form and likeness of men , 
and in the capacity of a sufferer. Not suffering as rep- 
resenting divinity, but as representing guilty man be- 
fore the claims of a holy law. In this relation, the apos- 
tle Peter says he suffered not only for us in this present 
age, but for those of past ages as well. "Because Christ 
also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unright- 
eous, that he might bring us to Grod ; being put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, in which also 
he went and preached to the spirits in prison." I Pet. 
3:18,19. Thus, in this character, Christ stood to the 
faith of the saved in all ages. The certain flow and effi- 
cacy of his blood spread itself out over the past, just as 
it has a perpetuity of influence stretching out over the 
future, and was made sure to the faith of believers, 
because it was provided for in the immutable counsel 
of Grod confirmed by an oath to them of the past ages, 
and to us by its actual shedding on the cross, and ac- 
cepted offering in heaven. All the unbelief in the 
world can never make void the efficacy of the blood of 
Christ to the believing heart. And all the ingenuity 
of mankind can never supplant its place in the econ- 



310 The Provisions Made for the 

omy of redemption with anything that will atone for 
sins. It is fixed, it is sure, it is unchangeable in this 
place, because in the v counsels of Grod it was decreed 
that Christ's blood should occupy that place in human 
redemption. 

All Christian people love to believe in this fixedness 
of the blood of Christ as the great cardinal means of 
salvation. But is there any greater authority for believ- 
ing in the certain perpetuity of the blood of Christ, than 
there is for believing in the perpetuity of the divinely 
elected means of witnessing the saving efficacy of that 
blood to a lost race? Certainly there is not. The same 
divine counsel which provides for the offering of the 
blood, provides also for the means, method, and instru- 
mentalities, through which the power of the blood to 
save shall be make known to all. The latter is just as 
essential as the former, and without which the former 
avails^absolutely nothing. It is not now the question 
of u what the means, etc., of witnessing the efficacy of 
the blood are; it is the fact that whatever they are, 
they are of divine appointment, and are therefore just 
as fixed and perpetual as the blood itself. In his rela- 
tion to the Father, as representing men, it is said of 
him: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my 
chosen, in whom my soul delighteth." Isa. 42:1. 
As the chosen and elect of God, he is set forth as being 
constantly upheld in his work by the Father himself. 
Thus there stands engaged for the certain accomplish- 
ment of the work Christ undertook, both the Father 
and the Son. This is a part of the mutual engagements 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 311 

between them in the covenant agreements. This is the 
guaranteed surety of the work between them. Christ 
was to die for certain results, and the Father was to 
make them sure to him. Hence: 

(2) It was provided in the counsels of God, that 
these should be given to Christ, to be redeemed by him by 
the laying down of his life for them. Of this gift, as 
being already realized by Christ, Isaiah, seven centuries 
before Christ came in the body of his flesh, breaks forth 
in joyful acclamation: "Behold, I and the children 
whom the Lord hath given me." Isa. 8:18. And 
this prophecy is caught up by the writer of the letter 
to the Hebrews (2: 15), and applied to Christ. But when 
were these children given to Christ, and for what pur- 
pose? These questions can be best answered, by the 
plain statements of God's word. Paul exultingly says : 
"Blessed be the Grod and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing 
in the heavenly places in Christ." All our spiritual 
blessings are vouchsafed to us only in Christ. He is 
the hilasterian, the mercy seat, in whom G-od meets us 
with mercy. But according to what rule of proceeding 
is he made such to us? Is it according to anything 
arising in time? No, the apostle continues: "Even as 
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, 
that we should be holy and without blemish before 
him in love." Two things are stated here, (a) The 
choice in Christ before the foundation of the world. 
And (b) the end in view; "that we should be holy 
and without blemish before him in love." Having 



312 The Provisions Made for the 

thus made choice of his people in Christ, God previously 
determines (such is the meaning of the word "fore- 
ordained") the method by which they shall be brought 
into this felicitous and holy condition before him, 
"having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through 
Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleas- 
ure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, 
which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. ' ' We are 
further taught: (a) That God previously determined 
the manner in which people should be brought into the 
relation of sons, viz., "by adoption through Jesus 
Christ." (b) The rule followed is, "the good pleasure 
of his will." (c) The end in view is, "that we should 
be to the praise of the glory of his grace." And (d) 
the freeness of it all "which he freely bestowed on us 
in the beloved. " Having stated the previously deter- 
mined fact in the divine mind, the rule of proceeding 
with it, the end in view, and the freeness of the whole 
matter, the apostle proceeds to set forth the means 
through which all of it is to be brought about, thus: 
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the 
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of 
his grace." Eph. 1:3-7. This agrees with his state- 
ment of the doctrine elsewhere. Says he: "Who 
saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not accord- 
ing to our works, but according to his purpose and 
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times 
eternal." II Tim. 1:9. 

Thus were they given to Christ in eternity, as the 
price or heritage which he was to receive in return for 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 313 

his blood, the price which he agreed to pay for them. 
In the character of paying the price agreed upon, the 
prophet looks od him, and the certain flow and efficacy 
of his blood to all for whom it is offered. "Yet it 
pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to 
grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for 
sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and 
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He 
shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satis- 
fied, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant 
justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities. 77 Isa. 
53:10, 11. The perpetuity of the offering in efficient 
travail to the end of time was known to Jesus, and 
with its results — seeing his seed, believers — he was sat- 
isfied. He was bringing in the children whom the 
Father had given him. Bearing their sins on the tree, 
he had knowledge of his sheep, and should justify 
many. This makes salvation secure to the believer. 
Why? Because the Father and the Son agreed on his 
salvation in eternity, when the compact of redemption 
was entered into. But what right has anyone to 
rejoice in the sure salvation of the believing, and at the 
same time deny the certain perpetuity of the means of 
such salvation! The perpetuity of the means whereby 
this end is secured to Christ and those for whom he 
died, rests on the same counsel of Grod. We shall see 
before we are through that many Christian communi- 
ties practically dispute the perpetuity of witnessing the 
power of the blood of Christ to save the lost, by the 
doctrine of church apostasy. Those coming into rela- 



314 The Provisions Made for the 

tions of sonship through the blood of Christ, have 
appointed unto them in the counsels of God a place 
through which, in the absence of Christ in person, they 
are to witness the efficacy of the blood of Christ to the 
end of time. But we shall see that they are not to do 
this alone. God has reserved to himself a place in this 
work. And that place is filled by the perpetual pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit. Having, now, considered those 
things that are made sure through the divine activity 
alone, let us look at the things in which the divine 
activity joins itself to human instrumentality, for the 
further prosecution of human redemption. 

3. The church is the divinely appointed 
human instrumentality through which the Father 
works out the blessings of his Son's blood to the race, 
and returns the same to Christ, as his for which he 
died. In the counsels of God was any place found for 
the church? If so, what was that place? Or is it possi- 
ble that the establishment of the church is an after- 
thought? These questions would interest angels. Much 
more should they interest the children of God, since it 
is the will of God that his people should honor the 
bride of his only Son. Certainly it is our duty to love 
the church, since Jesus himself "loved the church, and 
gave himself up for it." Eph. 5:25. Let us bring our 
hearts and minds prayerfully to this question, that in 
the spirit of Christ we may honor his truth, and prop- 
erly regard his church. Paul, in speaking of the 
mysteries of Christ, has this to say: " Which in other 
times was not made known unto the sons of men, as it 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 315 

hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and 
prophets in the spirit ; to ivit, that the Gentiles are fel- 
low heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow 
partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the 
gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the 
gift of that grace of God which was given me accord- 
ing to the working of his power. Unto me, who am 
less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to 
preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of 
Christ; and to make all men see what is the dispensa- 
tion of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid 
in God who created all things ; to the intent that now 
unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly 
places might be made known through the church the 
manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal pur- 
pose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
Eph. 3:5-11. This passage is worthy of our careful 
study. In it we are taught : 

First. That things are now made known that 
through the travail of past ages had not been made 
known. In the gracious purposes of God's heart, he 
had revealed himself as rapidly as the race could grasp 
his unfoldings. 

Second. That these things have now been revealed 
unto the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. 
Presently we shall have occasion to study the relation 
of the Holy Spirit to the historical permanency of the 
church. 

Third. That among the hidden things now re- 
vealed is, that the Gentiles are fellow partakers, and 



316 The Provisions Made for the 

fellow heirs with the Jews in the promise in Christ. 

Fourth. That the reservation of this mystery in 
past ages, looked unto a glorious end in its display in 
this age. 

Fifth. The display looked forward to was to be 
wrought through the church. That display was to 
make known the manifold wisdom of God. 

Sixth. All of this is traceable to the eternal purposes 
of God, which he purposed in Christ Jesus. Thus the 
church is set forth as being the covenant instrumental- 
ity through which the plan of salvation as revealed in 
the New Testament scriptures should become historic- 
ally permanent, because the church is elected to this 
end in the eternal purposes of God in Christ. This 
being undeniably true, it follows, therefore, that noth- 
ing can supplant the place God has assigned to the 
church in this work, any more than a substitute can 
be found to occupy the place assigned to the blood of 
Christ. It is a place immutably fixed, because it was 
fixed in eternity, to be made known, as the apostle says, 
"by revelation unto his holy apostles and prophets in the 
spirit." No amount of philosophy, or reasoning, or 
theorizing will ever escape the fact, that if the church 
has ever failed to be true to this God purposed relation, 
or should ever fail in the future to that extent that the 
Holy Spirit can no longer reveal the gospel through 
her, then the counsels of God have failed. 

When Christ came, true to the covenant relations 
with his Father, he gathered about him a company of 
disciples, organized them into the church, as we have 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 317 

before seen, instructed them in the nature of the mis- 
sion of the church in the world, and before his depar- 
ture to his Father, by his own divine commission, acting 
by all authority in heaven and on earth, assigned the 
church her covenant position and work. He had 
authority to do this. It had been purposed in him in 
eternity, and he had discharged the conditions imposed 
upon which the right rested. Hear his words as he 
comes to his church assembled on the mountain in 
Galilee, where he had himself appointed that this should 
take place. "All authority hath been given unto me 
in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world. 7 ' Matt. 28:18-20. 
Thus the place assigned the church is as much a part 
of the eternal compact, as is that which is assigned to 
the blood of Christ, and in her place, the existence of 
the church is just as necessary to the accomplishment 
of the final end in view, as is the blood of Christ. It 
is not so much a question of whether you believe in the 
perpetuity or historical permanence of the church, as it 
is: "Does God believe in it?" If God believes in it, 
then it is purposed by him, and is sure because pur- 
posed. "I have purposed it, I will also do it." Isa. 
46:11. The church could not have been made the 
instrumentality through which the gospel was to be 
made known to all, without God had purposed that 



318 The Provisions Made for the 

such should be the case. Hence, as the apostle says, 
it is, "according to the eternal purposes which he pur- 
posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eph. 3:11. 

But this purpose should not stand on human wis- 
dom, but on the power of G-od. It was not to be left 
to man to devise the life of the church, neither the 
means through which that life should be manifested to 
the world. We said at the opening of this chapter, 
that the church was to be a religious personel of Christ 
in bearing unimpeachable testimony to the divine origin 
of Christianity. That is, she should be so divinely 
equipped for, and fortified in the work, that she should 
not only in the immediate age following Christ, but to 
the end of time, practically reproduce and manifest 
the Christ life, not in word only, but also in a life con- 
formed to the requirements of the gospel of Christ. 

And thus as a religious figure she is to serve as 
the highest miraculous credential to the reproduction 
of the Christ life in the hearts of men. In the con- 
stituency of the body, each is to be no more himself 
living, but Christ living in him. The apostle brings 
out the idea in this way: "But we have this treasure 
— the indwelling Christ, in earthen vessels, vessels of 
flesh, — that the exceeding greatness of the power may 
be of God, and not from ourselves; ive are pressed on 
every side, yet not straightened; perplexed, yet not 
unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, 
yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body, 
the dying of Jesus" — this greatest tragedy in human his- 
tory is to be constantly reproduced through the church 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 319 

— "that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our 
body. For we which live are always delivered unto 
death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may 
be manifested in our mortal flesh." II Cor. 5:7-11. 
Thus as a religious force, divinely appointed, the 
church is to verify in herself the supernatural involved 
in the divine origin, and in the historical permanency 
of Christianity. Observe will you, that the supernatu- 
ral is as much concerned with the historical perma- 
nency of the institutions of Christianity, as with the 
origin of them. This has been overlooked by many, 
and the result is, a kind of religious form and philoso- 
phy has been suffered to take the place of the divine 
presence in working out the history of Christianity. 
This practically retires God from any connections with 
the matter, and leaves the whole cause to stand in the 
wisdom of man, and not on the purposes of God. 

Such are prepared to believe in the doctrine of 
church apostasy — the failure of the purpose of God, 
which is but the failure of God himself — and the 
ability of man to reproduce, by reformation, the lost 
and ruined bride of Christ. How sadly such fail, one 
need but learn the church of Christ from the New Tes- 
tament, and then compare with her, the churches of 
human origin. But it is time to examine into the 
divine method by which the historical permanency of 
the church is made sure. 

• 4. The Holy Spirit's relation to the historical 
permanency of the church. Hitherto we have not had 
occasion to examine closely into the relation the Holy 



320 The Provisions Made for the 

Spirit sustains to the covenant compact of human 
redemption. A covenant can not exist with less than 
two parties, but there can always be more than two. 
11 A covenant is a mutual agreement between two or 
more parties, to do or forbear some act or thing, a con- 
tract, a stipulation." In the covenant of human re- 
demption, God the Father, is the covenanter; the one 
who makes the covenant. God the Son, is the cove- 
nantee; the one to whom the covenant is made. God 
the Spirit, is the administrator, the one who directs, 
manages, distributes, and dispenses laws and rights. 

Men, believers, are the property consideration in 
the compact. So to speak: The Father proposed to 
give to the Son certain ones — believers — on the condi- 
tion that he would pay the price necessary for their 
redemption from the bondage of the law. This re- 
quired his humiliation and death. The Son accepted 
the gift and engaged to pay the price; but says: 
''Father, who will make good to me this inherit- 
ance? Who will bring me back from the powers 
and dominion of death to the glory I have with 
thee?" "I will give you power to lay down your 
life, and I will give power to take it again," answers 
the Father. But, Father, these are my brethren. They 
have no heart to love me. Who will make good to me 
these? God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, responds: 
I will witness thy sufferings and death to their hearts. 
I will quicken, and regenerate, and sanctify, and glo- 
rify them. I will go and take up my abode with them, 
and work in them and through them, until the last 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 321 

one given thee is brought on his way to heaven, to 
share thy glory with thee. Given the blood of Christ 
as the purchasing power, and glorification in heaven 
(I Pet. 3:18) as the end in view, the Holy Spirit fills 
the place of transferring the inheritance from its state 
in sin and corruption, to its state in glorification. And 
mark you, this is a relation sustained by the Holy 
Spirit, not simply and alone to those living since Christ 
came, but to the heirs of the promise in all past ages as 
well. Never, in consideration of anything else than 
the blood of Christ, does he enter the heart of man. 
It is only as he can carry with him that blood to purge 
the heart from sin and dead works, does he enter. In 
this sense — as witnessing the sufferings of Christ — the 
apostle Peter tells us he preached to those living before 
the flood (IPet. 3:18, 19), " that they might be judged 
according to men in the flesh, but live according to 
God in the spirit'' (I Pet. 4:6). And in the same 
manner did he witness the death of Christ to Abraham, 
and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and the prophets, 
and all the believing in the ages before Christ came. 
Hebrews, eleventh chapter. Why, we may ask. Be- 
cause it was the work assigned him in the covenant: 
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the 
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will 
put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts 
will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall 
be my people." Jer. 31:33. And let no one think for one 
moment that this is a covenant, the benefits of which 
were enjoyed by none, until Christ actually offered 

21 



322 The Provisions Made for the 

himself on the cross. The blood of Christ has a per- 
petuity of influence , spreading itself out over the past, 
as well as the future. The expression, "will make 
after those days," simply means, will manifest in all 
its fullness at the proper time, "the fullness of times. " 
This is that condition of things which the prophets 
anticipated, and toward which, in mind and heart, they 
travailed. Its blessings were, however, none the less 
sure to them. Of this travail of prophetic mind and 
heart toward the suffering Christ, with the fullness of 
the glories that should follow his unfolding of the hid- 
den mysteries of God in himself, through the Holy 
Spirit, the apostle Peter gives us a condensed view. 
It is this: "Concerning which salvation the prophets 
sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the 
grace that should come unto you : searching what time 
or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was 
in them did point to, when it testified beforehand the 
sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow 
them. To whom it was revealed, that not unto them- 
selves, but unto you, did they minister these things, 
which now have been announced unto you through 
them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven: which things angels 
desire to look into." I Peter 1:10-12. But given the 
sufferings of Christ as actually accomplished, and a 
company of believers in the same, called the church 
as actually brought together by the Holy Spirit through 
the gospel, how could the same be made historically 
permanent? This is the question now confronting us. 



Historical Permariency of the Church. 323 

And it is a question of no little importance, since the 
glory that was to follow the sufferings of Christ depends 
on it. And, remember, that that glory was to flow on 
perpetually through the divinely appointed channels. 
Those channels are named by Paul. "Unto him be 
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all genera- 
tions for ever and ever." Eph. 3:21. 

The meteor is by many persons looked upon as a 
star. It flashes across the heavens making them a 
pavilion of light, but the brightness of its shining soon 
fades, and the stars are seen to still be in their regular 
orbs, pursuing their even course, and shedding forth the 
glory of him who gave them appointment, and moved 
them out in their respective spheres. Just so, many 
institutious created by men in the name of Christian- 
ity, and called churches, flash across the horizon of 
human history, apparently reflecting great light. But 
when the Son of righteousness shall come in the bright- 
ness of the clouds, they will be found to flee before 
that coming; while his church, his bride, will be 
caught up to meet him in the heavens, to continue 
through endless ages to reflect credit on him. That 
this might be sure, it was necessary that the divine 
presence should be given to the church. This was pro- 
vided for in the covenant, hence Christ promised the 
Paraclete. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall 
give you another comforter, that he may abide with 
you forever, even the spirit of truth ; whom the world 
can not receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither 
knoweth him : ye know him ; for he abideth with you, 



324 The Provisions Made for the 

and shall be in you." John 14:16, 17. In order to 
arrive at an understanding of what sense the Holy 
Spirit is to conie, let us analyze these passages carefully. 
(a) He is promised as an advocate; such is the mean- 
ing of the term. In this sense he is not promised to 
the world, (&) He was to abide with the church per- 
petually, (c) He is called the spirit of truth, indi- 
cating his relation to the permanent establishment of 
the gospel, (d) In this relation the world could not 
receive him, because of their ignorance of him. (e) 
But the disciples could, for they had knowledge of 
him. In verse 26, of the same chapter, some additions 
are made, viz.: (a) Teach them all things. There 
were many things that Christ had not been able to 
teach them, because they were not able to receive 
them. John 16:12. (b) And bring to their memo- 
ries all things which Christ had taught them, and with 
them establish a concurrent testimony to the gospel. 
John 15:26, 27. Compare John 17:7, 14. These 
passages taken together, and as a whole, teach: 

(a) That the disciples were acquainted with the 
Holy Spirit, and were thereby prepared to receive him 
in the new relation he was coming to sustain to them. 

(b) That in this sense the world had no knowl- 
edge of him, and could not therefore receive him in 
this relation. 

(c) That it was a relation that looked to the 
establishment of the gospel. He was to call to the 
memory of the disciples the things Christ had taught 
them, and supplement the same by leading them into 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 325 

the things they were not yet able to receive from 
Christ. 

(d) And that in all this he was to glorify 
Christ. There are no traces of an infallible Peter in this 
whole matter. 

Now this testimony was to be conjointly rendered 
by the Holy Spirit and the church, not only in reducing 
the gospel to bodily form and giving to it historical 
permanence, but to the end of the world they should 
continue to witness to the hearts of men the saving 
efficacy of the blood of Christ. To this fact the apos- 
tle refers in Eph. 3:21, and to the manner of it, in II 
Cor. 3:2, 3, where he says: "Ye are our epistles, writ- 
ten in our hearts, known and read of all men: being 
made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, minis- 
tered by us, ^written not with ink, but with the spirit 
of the living Grod; not in tables of stone, but in tables 
that are hearts of flesh." 

The meaning may be stated thus: Griven the 
unsaved to whom to preach, the gospel as that which 
is to be preached, the apostle to preach it: the Holy 
Spirit bears concurrent testimony to the message by 
making it powerful ("them that preached the gospel 
unto you by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," 
I Pet. 1:12) upon the hearts of them that believe, thus 
claiming them for witnesses of Christ to be known and 
read of all men. Looking to this conjoint testimony to 
be borne by the Holy Spirit and the church, Christ 
said, after having just stated his death, burial, and 
resurrection: "And ye are witnesses of these things. 



326 The Provisions Made for the 

And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father 
upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed 
with power from on high." Luke 24:48, 49. The 
church being given as the instrumentality through 
which the Holy Spirit is to operate, and he being sent 
to take up his work, begins on the day of Pentecost to 
reveal unto the church, and through the same unto the 
world, the glorious gospel of Christ. It was a forma- 
tive period, not of the church, but of the gospel. It 
needed to stand on a higher basis than the unaided 
memory of the apostles. Hence the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit was given outwardly, and the unction of 
the spirit inwardly. The one was for confirming the 
presence of the supernatural outwardly, and thus 
establishing the message of the apostles on a divine 
basis, and when so established to witness the perpetual 
testimony of the Holy Spirit baptism, not by a con- 
stant repetition of the same, but by the presence of the 
miracles in the records which were wrought through 
it, as proof of the divine origin of the scriptures. Of 
this purpose of the Holy Spirit baptism, the apostle 
has this to say: "God also bearing witness with them, 
both with signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, 
and by gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his will." 
Heb. 2:4. 

These miraculous signs began in the "tongues" 
used on the day of Pentocost, and were continued in 
divers manners throughout the ministry of the apostles 
and early Christians, according as God willed to use 
them, down to the close of their necessity, by the com- 



Historical Permanency of the Church. 327 

pletion of the record. When the record had been com- 
pleted, the history contained the proof of the divine 
confirmation and stood on the basis of the supernatural, 
obviating the necessity of the display of divine power 
in the, performance of miracles. But there was still 
need of the divine presence to reveal to the heart's 
consciousness the truth of the gospel ; hence the abid- 
ing unction of the spirit. The record is sufficient for 
the mental conscience of the race. By no amount of 
reasoning can the mind of man pass the bound of wis- 
dom, or disprove the presence of divine power in the 
establishment of the gospel. But mental submission 
to the truth of the gospel does not save men. There 
is still an exercise of divine power through the truth, 
that belongs exclusively to the Holy Spirit. And just 
as in revealing, and establishing the truth in the first 
instance, he chose the church through which to accom- 
plish the same, so in this instance does he do likewise. 
Given the church as the divinely appointed instrumen- 
tality, and the gospel as the means of witnessing the 
merits of the blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit gives the 
church an unction to know the truth, and through her 
and with her witnesses a conjoint testimony to the end 
of time. 

Let us now examine into this unction of the spirit. 
The apostle John says: " And ye have an anointing 
from the Holy One, and ye know all things." I John 
2: 20. Notice also, that he uses this form of speech 
in direct contrast, in the preceding verse, with 
those who had gone out from among them, even deny- 



328 The Doctrine of Church 

ing Christ. And he assigns as a reason for their action, 
that they were not of the number. In Jer. 31:34, 
following the character of work to be done by the spirit 
in writing the law of G-od in the inward parts, etc., the 
prophet announces this very blessing of the covenant, 
saying, "and they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the 
Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of 
them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I 
will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember 
no more." 

This anointing is the conscious indwelliDg of the 
Holy Spirit, witnessing to the heart the ever living 
Christ as the perpetual life of the church. This ever 
abides with the church. "And as for you, the anoint- 
ing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye 
need not that anyone teach you ; but as his anointing 
teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no 
lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him." I 
John 2: 27. In this way the Holy Spirit continues 
through the ages to reveal the truth to the hearts of 
men, and to make it powerful as he witnesses through 
them. Observe, that as the church was appointed in 
the covenant, and by Christ, as the instrumentality 
through which he was to reveal and reduce to bodily 
form the gospel, so by the same divine appointment, 
it is through the church that he continues to manifiest 
the glories that should follow the sufferings of Christ. 
Whether you and I believe in the historical permanency 
of the church or not, does not in the least change the 



Apostasy and Refor?7iation. 329 

fact. God does, and it will stand fast when all that 
comes of man has perished a thousand times. "I 
purposed, I will also do it." 



CHAPTER V.— Continued. 

"THE HISTORICAL, PERMANENCY OF THE 
CHURCH." 

II.— The Doctrine of Church Apostasy and Reformation. 

T^HAT a very large per cent of the religious organ- 
* izations that are called churches are the out- 
growth of the idea that the church apostatized to that 
extent that it could no longer be looked upon as the 
representative of the doctrine and life of the New Tes- 
tament, no one will dispute. Upon what ground could 
any one justify himself in the creation of a church 
different from any in existence or that ever had ex- 
isted, except that none of them reproduced the New 
Testament church; none whatever. The first thing 
necessary for him to do, is to demonstrate that Christi- 
anity has miserably failed in the past. Should he fail 
to do this, the thoughtful mind will ask, why doest 
thou this? Should he succeed, the same mind will ask, 
by what authority do you guarantee the success of your 
enterprise, if that which was inaugurated by Christ 
and founded on the purposes of God and led on by the 
perpetual presence of the Holy Spirit, has failed? 



330 The Doctrine of Church 

Thus, his position precipitates upon him a dilemma 
from which he can never extricate himself with honor 
to God's word and the cause of Christ. 

If the church founded by Christ on the eternal 
purposes of God and his own blood, and permeated 
and led on in her divinely appointed work by the 
Holy Spirit has failed, then surely his may. If it has 
not failed, then surely there is no need of his, since he 
has no deeper insight into the divine mind, than had 
the Holy Spirit in revealing that mind in the scrip- 
tures, that he may improve on what has been divinely 
given. 

The premises upon which the plea is based are 
wrong, as we shall see on close examination. The right 
of an institution to Christian recognition does not 
depend on the fact that it pleads in the name of Chris- 
tianity, but on the authority it has from Christ, the 
author of the Christian institutions. Nor does the 
fact that men are conscientious in a plea make it right, 
and give it the title of an institution of Christ. Said 
Christ, "the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you 
will think that he doeth God service." John 16:2. 
That men would come to think (to be conscientious in 
it) that to shed the blood of the servants of Christ 
would be doing service to God, does not obviate the 
law, "thou shalt not kill," releasing from the crime of 
murder and making it a moral and Christian duty to 
kill. 

And yet we know through all the ages, men have 
shed the blood of the saints as an act of service to God. 



Apostasy and Reformation. 331 

But we may be sure God has never sanctioned or 
recognized such as Christian service. Of milder forms 
of pretended service, Christ has said : "When once the 
Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the 
door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the 
door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall 
answer and say unto you, I know ye not whence ye are. 
Then shall ye begin to say, we have eaten and drunk 
in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 
But he shall say : I tell you, I know you not whence ye 
are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. " Luke 
13:25, 27. These persons are represented as being 
sure they had been doing service to the Master in the 
right manner and by the right authority, but are told 
in turn that they are workers of iniquity. No sadder 
disappointment can come upon anyone, than that 
which comes from having thought to be right when all 
was wrong. And fearful are the warnings laid down 
by the Holy Spirit against this enthronement of con- 
scious honesty, over the claim of God's word. Paul 
said to Timothy: "The time will come when they will 
not endure the sound doctrine, but, having itching 
ears, will they heap to themselves teachers after their 
own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, 
and will turn aside unto fable. " II Tim. 4:3. One of 
the fabulous things that we are called upon to believe 
is that the church failed. And this call is justified by 
each new man who comes forward to recreate the 
church, on the ground that church organization is only 
an outward form, and as such it matters not so much 



332 The Doctrine of Church 

as to the form, so the inner life is all right. And yet, 
the position of all church reformers, when reduced to its 
final analysis, is, that where there is no membership in 
this outward form, there is no salvation. There is a 
great fault in the logic of such somewhere. If, as the 
theory holds, church membership is essential to salva- 
tion, then the outward form is of the greatest moment. 
While we do not believe in the doctrine "no church 
membership, no salvation,' 7 we do believe that the out- 
ward form is essential to the end in view. Grod has 
given to every seed its special outward form, as it 
pleased him. I Cor. 15:36-40. 

A human soul inhabiting the outward form of a 
horse would be an anomaly, yet it would be the doc- 
trine that the outward form was of little importance. 

When we consider that the church is. represented 
as the bride of Christ, and the abode of the Holy 
Spirit, it will not be an easy matter to justify the plea 
that the outward form is of little value. No man 
would want for his bride a woman of great deformity. 
Neither does Christ want the church in any other form 
than that which was given her by the divine hand. 
The form given to the human body is absolutely essen- 
tial to the manifestation of human life. It is so, 
because God appointed it to be so. And just so, the 
form appointed the church is necessary to the mani- 
festation of the divine life. The doctrine that outward 
the form amounts to little is illogical, against reason, 
experience, and the plain statements of the scriptures. 
And that cause which rests its right to usurp the 



Apostasy and Reformation. 333 

conscience of men on such a plea, must be regarded as 
without foundation in fact. 

1. Let us examine into the premises of the doctrine 
of church reformation. The plea is based on the pre- 
sumption, primarily, that the Eoman Catholic church 
is the church of Christ in an apostate state. While 
Luther unconsciously held views in conflict with the 
Roman Catholic church, it was the sale of indulgences, 
in the vicinity of Wittenberg, by Tetzel, under the 
commission of the archbishop of Mainz, which formed 
the occasion for his conflict with the Roman church. 
He saw the corruption of the Roman church, and 
the total abandonment, or supplanting, of the doc- 
trines of grace by her priestly machinations, and 
set himself to reform the Roman church. The thought 
that she was not the church seems never to have 
entered his mind. His aim was not to oppose the 
church as thus conceived, but to aid her by correcting 
some of her glaring evils. This brought him at length 
into violent conflict with the Romish church, and 
forced upon him the necessity of giving his work sep- 
arate form. The spirit of the work was a noble one. 
The mistake of the work lay in the creation of a 
church, instead of seeking identity with the church of 
Christ. From this time on every pedobaptist under- 
taking to write a history of the church and the doctrines 
of the New Testament, is forced in the very nature 
of the case to trace them through the Roman Catholic 
church, from 1525, A. D. The Lutherans and Presby- 
terians can go back to this time through their own 



334 The Doctrine of Church 

organizations, but here they are plunged off into the 
Eoman Catholic church. 

The various kinds of Methodists can go back 
through the Church of England to about 1531, and 
here they, too, must begin to travel back through 
Borne. It is not necessary to have a deep insight into 
logic to see that such a position, in the very nature of 
the case, charges upon the cause of Christ all the 
shocking enormities of the Roman church. Nor is it 
difficult to see that the natural tendencies of such is to 
produce a type of infidelity that turns away from 
Christianity with disgust. Once you get one to believe 
that the gospel of peace and purity has been converted 
into a gospel of war and corruption, and he is no 
longer in a condition to look upon Christianity with 
favor. This is the logical tendency of the doctrine. 
Nor is the reformation of Me. A. Campbell in any 
better relations to this question. In the Mill. Harbin- 
ger, volume 5, page 374, it is stated: "There is not one 
voice heard in all the world outside of the boundaries of 
the present reformation, calling upon the people to return 
to the original gospel and order of tilings" And in the 
same volume, page 195, it is further stated : "The opin- 
ions of the orthodox are about as correct on millennial 
matters as they are on their systems of divinity. Their 
gigantic efforts to evangelize the world at the present is 
tending to perfect the analogy between the present and 
past dispensations ; compassing sea and land to make 
proselytes; and when they are made they are twofold 
more the children of hell." Thus Mk. Campbell started 



Apostasy and Reformation. 335 

from the viewpoint that the original purity and order 
of the gospel was lost, and needed to be restored to 
mankind. 

Any organization of Christian people who have 
sprung up as the result of efforts at either reformation, 
or restoration, stands committed to the doctrine of 
church apostasy, with whatever consequences that doc- 
trine precipitates on the. cause of Christ. The passages 
relied on to prove the doctrine do not support it, but on 
the contrary, prove the opposite. It is worth our 
while to examine into some of these passages, and for 
that purpose we select those most emphasized by the 
advocates of the doctrine. These are three in number. 
u And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she 
hath a place prepared of God, that there they may 
nourish her a thousand, two hundred and three score 
days." "And there were given to the woman the two 
wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the 
wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a 
time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the 
serpent." Rev. 12:6 and 14. The general idea of 
both passages is the same, and both refer to the same 
events. • The time note of both is the same. Time, 
times, and half a time, meaning respectively, one, two, 
and one half a year, or twelve hundred and sixty days, 
the number assigned in the former verse, elsewhere 
put at forty and two months, the same number of days. 
As a day in prophecy is defined in Daniel 9:25:26, as 
comprehending a year of time, the exact time that this 
condition of things should continue is twelve hundred 



336 The Doctrine of Church 

and sixty years. Now it is held by the advocates of 
the doctrine that the woman symbolizes the church, 
which we do not deny, and the flight into the wilder- 
ness represents the corruption of the church. This we 
deny that the passages teach. And that they do not, 
will appear conclusive from the following considera- 
tions. 

First. The flight was from a pursuing power called 
"the dragon." There was no such thing as the one 
swallowing up the other while this, condition of things 
remained. 

Second. The woman fled to her place prepared of 
God. Whatever the state or condition of the woman was, 
God is the author of it. It is certain it was not a state 
of infidelity and sin, since God is too pure to tempt any 
one to such, much less the church for which his own 
Son gave himself, and that, too, according to the Fath- 
er's will. 

Third. In this state of retreat she was "nourished 
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of 
the serpent." The use of the term "face" is not with- 
out its significance. It is a term that means commun- 
ion, as illustrated by the shew bread of the Old Testa- 
ment, called the "face-bread." The woman did not 
commune with the serpent; that is, she did not join 
with him in any of his pretended relations to God. 
This distinct separateness was maintained throughout 
the entire period. This is inspired church history, and 
shows the existence of the church under the tender 
care of God, throughout the whole period of Catholic 



Apostasy and Reformation. 337 

supremacy. Whether you and I are able to trace the 
presence of the church through the whole period or 
not, is a matter of little consequence, since that pres- 
ence is traced by the Holy Spirit in the inspired vol- 
ume, apart from the man of sin. It is quite sure from 
this fact, that God does not look to churches of refor- 
mation for a history of the institutions of the New Testa- 
ment, since that history is provided for outside of the 
Romish church, from which such have come forth. 
Let us now examine into the other passage relied on. 
It is this: "Now we beseech you, brethren, touching 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering 
together unto him ; to the end that ye be not quickly 
shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by 
spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the 
day of the Lord is now present ; let no man beguile you 
in any wise ; for it will not be, except the falling away 
come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of 
perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against 
all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he 
sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as 
God." II Thes. 2:1-4. This is the strong passage of 
the doctrine of church apostasy, those previously cited 
being used as circumstantial evidence. The apostle 
is seeking to disabuse the minds of some of the saints 
at Thessalonica, who had come to believe that the sec- 
ond coming of Christ was nigh at hand. He calls their 
attention (verse 5) to the fact that he had previously 
taught them that certain things should transpire before 
that event took place. He repeats those things to 



338 The Doctrine of Church 

them. There is to be revealed the man of sin, the son 
of perdition. 

(a) The occasion of this revelation is "the falling 
away" that should come. The advocates of the doc- 
trine agree with us on one thing; namely, that the man 
of sin, etc., represents the Romish church, and the 
assumption of divine attributes and prerogatives by 
the pope. This we have seen at some length in a pre- 
vious chapter. No other being in all the world (and 
this is history that is to be wrought out by those 
belouging to this world, by men) "sets himself forth as 
God." 

But the advocates of the total apostasy of the 
church have failed to show us by what process the bride 
of Christ could become transformed into the man of 
sin. This is yet to be done. The whole theory rests 
on the presumption that the "falling away" is total. 
This is a gratuitous presumption to say the least. 
There is always a falling away from every congregation 
of saints, but such is not evidence that the whole con- 
gregation falls away. Men began falling away with 
Judas, and continued to do so on through the ministry 
of the apostles. But what character of men? Those 
who loved Christ? Not at all. John tells us. "They 
went out from us, but they were not of us ; for if they 
had been of us, they would have continued with us; 
but they ivent out, that they might be made manifest 
how that they all are not of us." I John 2:19. This 
is falling away. It was because they were not of those 
who loved Grod. Their going out is cited as the proof 



Apostasy and Reformation. 339 

of that fact. It would be folly to presume that all had 
gone out, because the apostle mentions the fact that 
some had. Upon examination we will find this to be 
the case with the passage under consideration. In the 
subsequent verses the apostle brings out the cause of 
the falling away. "For," says he, "the mystery of 
lawlessness doth already work." This is insubordina- 
tion to Christ; a striking characteristic of the unre- 
generate. This is precisely the character of those 
through whom the man of sin should be revealed, 
"even he, whose coming is according to the working of 
Satan with all power and sigus and lying wonders, and 
with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are 
perishing; because they received not the love of the 
truth, that they might be saved." Those who loved 
not the truth would fall away, and thus furnish the 
occasion for the revelation of the man of sin. Falling 
away from the form of sound words which they had 
not loved, and the spirit of which they never received. 
To say it was a total falling away, is to say there 
was to be a period of time twelve hundred and sixty 
years long, in which there were none who loved the 
truth. While two or three faithful ones remained, the 
church could be perpetuated. This is all that is 
required under the New Testament law to perpetuate 
the cause. If from age to age there remained that 
number of faithful ones, then our cause is sustained. 
We know by the continued presence of the edicts of 
the pope, against the rebaptized and the rebaptizers, 
and the large armies by which such were enforced, that 



340 The Doctrine of Church 

there were large numbers at all times who refused to 
recognize the supremacy of the pope and the Romish 
church. 

(6) Other passages, relating to the same con- 
dition of things, show that the "falling away' 7 was 
limited to those who loved not the truth. In I John 
2:4, 5, it is said: "He that saith I know him, and 
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth 
is not in him; but whoso keepeth his word, in him 
verily hath the love of God been perfected." And 
Christ said, "if ye love me, ye will keep my command- 
ments. 77 John 14:15. This is the general law of 
obedience as laid down in the scriptures. Disobedience 
is the certain proof that love of God is not in the heart. 
That those not loving God should "fall away 77 from 
the form of sound words, is not at all surprising. It is 
the'natural result. Now this is precisely the class of 
persons over whom the dragon and the beast had 
power. John, speaking of the authority given to the 
dragon and the beast, after the union of pagan Rome 
(the dragon) with the beast (the apostate element of 
those professing to love God) has this to say of the 
extent of that authority: "And all that dwell on the 
earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath 
not been written in the book of life of the Lamb that 
hath been slain from the foundation of the world. 77 
Rev. 13:8. Those written in the "book of life of the 
Lamb 77 are those upon whose hearts the Holy Spirit 
writes the law of the Lord, and in whose hearts he 
dwells. These have the conscious testimony of the 



Apostasy and Reformation. 341 

truth, and no amount of secular authority and power 
can now or has ever been able to cause them to turn 
from Christ to the corruptions of the gospel as pre- 
sented by the Romish church. Over such Rome 
never prevailed, but through the ages of this con- 
flict of truth and 'error, they, lead on by Christ, 
continued to be true to him. This is that war in 
heaven in which "Michael and his angels going forth 
to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred 
and his angels-, and they prevailed not, neither was 
there place found any more in heaven. And the 
great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he 
that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the 
whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his 
angels were cast down with him. And I heard a great 
voice in heaven, saying, now is come the salvation, and 
the power, and kingdom of our Grod, and the authority 
of his Christ ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast 
down, which accuseth them before our God day and 
night. And they overcome him because of the blood of 
the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony ; 
and they loved not their lives unto death." Eev. 12: 
7-11. This is not a conflict of truth with error that 
should spring up in the sixteenth century, but one that 
should be continuous from the rise of the dragon power, 
to his successful downfall before the power of the blood 
of Christ and the testimony of his saints, who loved 
him more dearly than they loved their own lives. But 
the doctrine of a total falling away is, in the very nature 
of the case, against these scripture facts. It can not 



342 The Doctrine of Church 

therefore, be true, because opposed to the teachings of 
the scriptures. 

(c) This interpretation agrees with the historic 
facts connected with the rise and spread of the Romish 
church. In a previous chapter, we had occasion to no- 
tice the rise of the doctrines that led to the "f ailing 
way." These were the episcopacy, baptismal salva- 
tion, and infant baptism. At first, mere tendencies but 
by the middle of the third century they had become so 
marked as to cause the first definite and formal division 
in the church. And from the time of this division, 
whenever possible, the corrupt element called on the 
secular arm of pagan Rome (the dragon) to force the 
opposing element into submission. This continued to 
be the case till 325, A. D., when Constantine formally 
incorporated the corrupt element with the empire, and 
thus gave "the seat and authority of the dragon to the 
beast,' 7 the Roman Catholic church. From this time 
on, those maintaining the purity of the gospel are called 
heretics, and are hunted out and put to death by Roman 
armies, armed with the edicts of Roman emperors and 
Romish popes. Blind indeed must he be who reads 
these edicts and fails to see the presence of a people in 
the world, who refused to own the supremacy of the 
pope sufficiently numerous to cause the creation of 
armies to suppress them. 

2. The consequences that the doctrine of the total 
corruption or apostasy of the church precipitates on the 
cause of Christianity are such that they prove it to be un- 
true. Avery safe rule of examining into any position, 



Apostasy and Reformation. 343 

is, to look at the results that are involved in such posi- 
tion. If the results are ridiculous, or absurd, or against 
God, or such as to amount to the destruction of any- 
thing that is of God, then we may be sure that the posi- 
tion is untrue. It is possible that many who are com- 
mitted by their position to the doctrine of church 
apostasy have never looked into the consequences in- 
volved in the position. Whatever those consequences 
may be, every denomination of Christian people in the 
world that has sprung up as the result of either ref- 
ormation or restoration, stands involved in them. 
That the church is the creature of God, no one will 
deny. Had it not been for the purpose of God to save 
men through Christ, and the revelation of that purpose 
in the incarnation of the Son, there never could have 
been a church of Christ in the world. It does no'ttake 
a deep philosophy to see that the existence of the church 
is directly traceable to God, through the sufferings of 
Christ, and that the existence of the church has an in- 
timate association with the Trinity. These relations or 
associations are of such a character in the plan of re- 
demption, that neither one can cease in the relations it 
sustains to the other, without a cessation of the economy 
of redemption. Should the relations once be broken, 
there is no possibility of amending them. The doctrine 
of church apostasy assumes, first, a broken relation 5 
and, second, an amended breach or the restoration of 
the primitive relations. 

(1) It teaches a failure in the purposes or coun- 
sel of God. The counsel or purposes of God are like 



344 The Doctrine of Church 

himself, immutable. "My counsel shall stand, and I 
will do all my pleasure." And again: "I have pur- 
posed, I will also do it." Isa. 46:10, 11. Whatever 
was in the counsel of God shall stand, because the 
counsel itself shall stand, and whatever God purposed 
shall be done, because purposed of God. Among the 
things in the counsels of God was the creation of the 
church, through which as a divinely appointed instru- 
mentality, the gospel should be made known to all. 
The apostle states it in this way: "To the intent that 
now unto the principalities and the powers in the heav- 
enly places might be made known through the church 
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal 
purposes which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
Eph. 3:10, 11. This passage, in connection with those 
just cited, teaches: (a) That in eternity God purposed 
certain things, (b) That they were purposed in Christ 
Jesus our Lord, (c) That they shall be accomplished 
because purposed in him. (d) That among the things 
purposed is to make known to all the manifold wisdom 
of God. (e) That this is to be done through the 
church. It does not take deep thought to see that if 
the church totally apostatized, then (a) the God- 
appointed instrumentality through which the gospel 
was to be made known to all ceased to exist, and (6) 
the purposes or counsel of God failed, and (c) Christ 
died in vain, since there is no longer any divinely 
appointed instrumentality through which the story of 
the cross is to be preached. And worse than all this, 
the position puts a falsehood in the mouth of God, and 



Apostasy and Reformation. 345 

makes the Holy Spirit and the apostle witness a lie. 
The apostle in speaking of the immutability of the 
counsel, remarks: "Wherein God, being minded to 
shew more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise 
the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an 
oath that by two immutable things in which it is 
impossible for God to lie," etc. Heb. 6:17, 18. The 
doctrine of church apostasy not only says that the 
counsel of God is mutable, but also that God has 
sworn to a lie. One of the things by which the Father 
has sworn is the eternal priesthood of Christ. "The 
Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, thou art a priest 
forever, after the order of Melchizedek. ' ' Psalms 110 : 4. 
The other is the eternal sonship of Christ. "Yet I 
have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will 
tell the decree: The Lord said unto me, thou art my 
Son; this day have I begotten thee." Ps. 2:6, 7. Just as 
sure as this oath was made to Christ and in him con- 
firmed to the believer, just that sure is the perpetuity 
of the church which is purposed in the counsel which 
the oath was made to seal. The oath is the Father's 
solemn attestation to the Son, that what he had purposed 
in him should certainly be accomplished. And whether 
we view the organic feature of the counsel of God as 
a church or a kingdom the results are the same. As a 
church it is given to the obedient unto Christ through 
which they are to preach the gospel and shine forth 
the Christ life. As a kingdom it is spoken of in the 
same way, and as having the same indivisible perpetuity. 
"And in the days of those kings shall the God of 



346 The Doctrine of Church 

heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be de- 
stroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to 
another people ; but it shall break in pieces and con- 
sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." 
Dan. 2:44. A kingdom must have a sovereign, laws, 
and subjects, and the church must have the same. 
The kingdom like the church, is reproduced in all the 
fullness of its elements in each local assembly of the 
church. That is to say: There can be no kingdom 
where the sovereignty of Christ is not recognized and 
his laws obeyed. But this gives a king, laws, and 
subjects, and, therefore, a kingdom. There can be no 
church where the sovereignty of Christ is not recog- 
nized and his laws obeyed. But this gives a sovereign 
laws, and subjects, and, therefore, the church. In 
the passage just cited may be noticed: (a) The setting 
up, by divine hand, of a kingdom or church, (b) which 
shall never be destroyed, (c) Nor shall its sovereign 
right to be such be transferred to other people, (d) It 
shall break in pieces all other kingdoms, (e) It shall 
stand forever. It is an immovable kingdom, because 
founded on Glod's purpose to set it up. Hence, says 
the apostle, "Wherefor receiving a kingdom that can 
not be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may 
offer service well-pleasing to Grod with reverence and 
awe; for our Grod is a consuming fire." Heb. 12:28. 
The doctrine of total church apostasy is diametrically 
opposed to these basal facts in the economy of redemp- 
tion. Nor are these all of the fatal consequences that 
are precipitated on the cause of Christ by that doctrine 



Apostasy and Reformation. 347 

Indeed, these are sufficient to condemn it; for by them 
it charges falsehood on God, mutability to his pur- 
poses, and hopelessly destroys the divine appointment 
through which the gospel is to be made known to all. 

(2) The doctrine destroys the figurative relations 
that are said to exist between Christ and the church. 
These relations, while presented in figure, can mean 
nothing less than vital principles, which are in the 
nature of the case indestructible without the destruction 
of the relations represented by them. And more; they 
are such in their very nature, that if once destroyed 
they are irrecoverable, in which case church reforma- 
tion and restoration, to fit a bride for Christ, are 
hopeless. 

(11) Christ is presented as sustaining the relation 
to the church, that the head sustains to the body. 

If it be said this is only figurative relation, and is, 
therefore, of little importance; the reply is, that no 
figure ever represents more than is intended in the 
reality, but always less. We know that to sever the 
organic relation between the head and the body would 
result in the immediate death, not only of the body, 
but of the head as well. Nor is there any way short 
of a miracle of restoring the relation. The thought 
that gives movement to the body originates in the 
head, while the pulsation that manifests the thought in 
the movement of the body, is from the heart within 
the body. So the church has the mind of Christ, the 
thought that comes from the head to give movement 
to the body, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in 



348 The Doctrine of Church 

the body (the church) to manifest the thought — the 
gospel — that comes from the head, Christ. Sever the 
relation, as church apostasy does, and there is no 
longer any connection with Christ, the head, in giving 
thought, and the Holy Spirit, the heart and life of the 
body, in manifesting thought. Two or three passages 
will set forth the idea. The apostle, in speaking of the 
exaltation of Christ, concludes by saying: "And put 
all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him 
to be head over all things to the church, which is his 
body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.' 7 Eph. 
1:22, 23 (compare 4:12, 13). "And he is the head of 
the body, the church." Col. 1:18. That this relation 
is of such moment that it can not be destroyed without 
disastrous results, is brought out in the following 
passage, "For the husband is the head of the wife, as 
Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the 
savior of the body." Eph. 5:23. While Christ is 
the personal savior of each member who comes in, 
he is also, as head over the church, the constant source 
from whence the church perpetually draws her life. 
To strike down the relation, by the doctrine of the 
total apostasy of the church, is to destroy the relation 
and make it no louger possible for the Holy Spirit to 
manifest the Christ life to the world through a dead 
body. 

(22) Christ is presented as sustaining the relation 
to the church that the husband does to the ivife. 

This is a relation that is founded on love, and 
when not so founded, sinks to the level of fleshly lusts, 



Apostasy and Reformation. 349 

and becomes chargeable with fornication, which severs 
the bond of the relation. Where church membership 
is founded on obedience that does not come from 
hearts in love with Christ, it sinks to this level, and is 
chargeable with spiritual fornication. Of this kind of 
obedience is infant baptism and the baptism of adults 
in order to the remission of sins. They both descend 
to the plane of obedience from fleshly hearts not made 
spiritual, and, therefore, to a carnal basis. Now this 
is the character ascribed by the Holy Spirit to apostate 
Rome. "For by the wine of the wrath of her fornica- 
tion all the nations are fallen ; and the kings of the 
earth committed fornication with her," etc. Rev. 
18:3. And in this character she is represented as the 
mother of a brood of harlots. "And upon her fore- 
head a name written, mystery, babylon the great, 

THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF 

the earth." Rev. 17:5. There can not be an off- 
spring without a mother, and in the use of this 
relation here, the Holy Spirit has called our attention 
to the illegitimate relations and character of those 
institutions that have come forth from Rome by ef- 
forts at reformation. It is unwise to shut our eyes 
to that which the Holy Spirit has put right on the 
surface of his statements. If our church has received 
her ordinances and ordinations from Rome, and has 
thereby been born of this mother, then seek as we 
may, we will never be able to cover up the character of 
our standing, and the way in which the Holy Spirit 
regards that standing as an harlot and abomination 



350 * The Doctrine of Church 

of the earth. John the Baptist saw Christ in the 
possession of a pure and chaste bride, and rejoiced 
(John 3 :29), and the apostle Paul saw him laying down 
his life for his church, his bride, that he might present 
her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or 
wrinkle or any such thing ; but that she should be holy 
and without blemish." Eph. 5:25, 26. And in II Cor. 
11:2, the apostle declares in a jealous tone: "I am 
jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused 
you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure 
virgin to Christ. 7 ' Theorize on the matter as best you 
may, the fact remains that if the doctrine of total 
church apostasy is true, then the best with which 
Christ can ever be presented is a reformed spiritual 
fornicator. The virgin purity of the church was 
destroyed by fornication with the kings of the earth, if 
the theory is true, and this releases Christ from the 
bond of the relation according to his owd law. Matt. 
5:32. Nor has he anywhere intimated that he would 
enter the relation with another. This consequence the 
position precipitates upon all those who hold it. By no 
amount of reasoning or logic, can the plain statements 
of God's word be evaded. The Holy Spirit says of all 
who have come into existence as the results of reforma- 
tion or restoration, that they are the offspring of the 
harlot mother. Why, we may ask. Because they 
see in this mother the church of Christ, and set them- 
selves to reform and restore her. A man may be 
untrue to the bonds of married life and commit forni- 
cation, and afterward be reformed, but he can never be 



Apostasy and Reformation. 351 

more after that act, than a reformed fornicator. Nor 
yet are these all the consequences the doctrine precipi- 
tates on the cause of Christ. 

(3) It logically chakges upon Christ the enor- 
mities of the Romish church. Christ said to his church 
when he sent her forth on her mission, "Lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 
28:20. And John says, "He walketh in the midst of 
the golden candlesticks." Rev. 2:2. There is not a 
second of time from the moment this divine presence 
was promised to the end of the world, but that it is 
secure to the church. The covenant provides for a 
succession of the divine presence with the church. The 
doctrine that we are examining into assumes that the 
Roman Catholic church is the church of Christ in this 
apostate state. Then what is true of the Roman 
Catholic church has the sanction of the divine pres- 
ence, since Christ promised his perpetual presence. 
Reader, are you ready to charge such upon Christ?* We 
need but cite one or two descriptions given us in the 
word of God, to make your innermost heart cry out 
against the doctrine. "Come hither, I will shew thee 
the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon 
many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have 
committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth 
were made drunken with the wine of her fornication." 
And now notice what the angel revealed to him, and 
the additional tints of character added, and then if you 
are prepared to believe that Christ was with such as his 
pure and chaste bride, there will be few things that 



352 The Doctrine of Church 

will be too difficult for you to charge upon our Lord 
Jesus Christ. "And he carried me away in the spirit 
into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a 
scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, hav- 
ing seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was 
arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold 
and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a 
golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean 
things of her fornication, and upon her forehead a name 
written, mysteky, babylon the gkeat, the mothee of 

HAELOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EAETH. And I Saw 

the woman drunken with the blood "of the saints, and 
with the blood of martyrs of Jesus." Rev. 17:1-6. 
Did you ever pause and ask yourself: From whence 
come these saints in such numbers as that the woman 
was drunken on their blood? They were certainly not 
of her own number. 

If the Romish church is the church of Christ 
in apostasy, then Christ was with her in this blood- 
shed and carnage. Now, no one believes it, unless 
he be an infidel. Then why should we identify our- 
selves with religious movements that precipitate such 
on our blessed Redeemer and his cause? One more 
picture from the Holy Spirit. It is this: "And he 
cried with a mighty voice, saying, fallen, fallen, fallen 
is Babylon the great, and is become the habitation of 
devils, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold 
of every unclean and hateful bird." Rev. 18:2. Now 
such a condition of things can not represent the church 
of Christ in any stage of her history, "for her sins have 



Apostasy and. Reformation. 353 

reached even unto heaven, and Grod hath remembered 
her iniquities. Render unto her even as she rendered, 
and double unto her the double according to her works : 
in the cup which she mingled, mingle unto her double. 
How much soever she glorified herself, and waxed 
wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning: 
for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no 
widow, and shall in nowise see mourning. Therefore 
in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourn- 
ing, and famine ; and she shall be utterly burned with 
fire; for strong is the Lord God which judgeth her." 
Rev. 18:5-9. If the apostasy doctrine is true, then the 
first bride of our Redeemer is to come to an awful 
ending, and there is no guaranty that he will accept a 
second, since in that event there is none with which to 
present him, except such as are born of this mothee, 
and the Holy Spirit pronounces such harlots. If 
those holding to the position do not believe in the total 
apostasy of the church, then why should they be con- 
tented with ordinances derived from this corrupt mon- 
ster! If they do, then they stand committed to these 
awful consequences. 



23 



354 Some Glimpses at the Church 



CHAPTER V.— Continued. 

HISTORICAL PERMANENCY OP THE CHURCH. 
III.— Some Glimpses at the Church in Uninspired History. 

IT is not vital to the identity of the church to trace 
an unbroken history back to Christ, and whether 
such can be accomplished or not, does not affect the 
certainty of the identity. As seen, God provides for 
the historical permanency of the church in the scrip- 
tures, and has written an infallible history of the same. 
He has told us in that history, that there was to be an 
obscure period of twelve hundred and sixty years, dur- 
ing which the church was to be hunted to the death by 
a world wide power, and has thus prepared the thought- 
ful mind to look first of all into the divine record for 
the perpetuity of the church. That there should be a 
scarcity of historic records kept by the church, is not 
to be wondered at, when we take into consideration 
the fact the Romish church not only consigned to the 
flames the members of the church, but their books and 
records as well, not exempting their Bibles from this 
certain doom. A profuse literature of the church 
under such conditions should rather excite our suspi- 
cion, than increase our faith in the perpetuity of the 
church. If, as we have seen, the scriptures provide 
for certain distinguishing features as characteristic of 
the church, and there now exists only one church hav- 



in Uninspired History. 355 

ing such characteristic features, and no place can be 
assigned in history this side of Christ for the origin of 
such, we are warranted by the teachings of God's word 
to accept such church as having come down through 
the ages, apart from the Romish church. We have 
seen that the one great cardinal feature of the church 
of Christ is a converted membership, and that Baptists 
are the only people requiring a profession of such a 
change *on the part of all who seek membership in their 
congregations. We have also seen that not a single 
Protestant pedobaptist church in existence goes back 
of 1525, A. D., for its origin. If such represent the 
church of Christ, either the church did not exist prior 
to that time, or the Romish apostasy was the church. 
Viewed in either way, such organizations can not be 
the church of Christ. If the Romish church was ever 
the church of Christ, she is so till yet, and no one has 
a right to create schism in the church by the organiza- 
tion of rival bodies. In that event, it was the duty of 
the reformers to remain in the Romish church, and 
labor to correct her impurities. If she is not now the 
church of Christ, and this all Protestants hold to be 
the case, she never was; in which case she could not 
confer on those coming out of her the heritage ol the 
gospel and the ordinances, and they can not therefore 
claim to be the church. It is not a question of whether 
the members of such churches are Christians or not. 
We get the new nature conferred in regeneration from 
God, and not from church membership. We obtain 
the latter from the church, by obedience to the gospel 



356 Some Glimpses at the Church 

which was committed to the church. The former is 
essential to our salvation, the latter is essential to the 
reward offered for acceptable service rendered God in 
his appointed ways. 

"The mother of haelots, never having had com- 
mitted to her the gospel, can never confer obedience 
that will entitle to the reward offered the obedient. 
Paul brings out the character of the salvation of such 
in the letter to the Corinthians, thus: "But if any 
man*, buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly 
stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man's work shall be 
made manifest ; for the day shall declare it, because it 
is revealed in fire ; and the fire itself shall prove each 
man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work 
abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. 
If any man's works shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; 
but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." 
I Cor. 3:12-15. The figure is that of a man escap- 
ing from a burning house. He succeeds in saving 
himself, but all his goods perish. Just so ; those who 
are God's children, seeking obedience from sources 
not divinely appointed to confer the same, shall come 
out with eternal life — God's gift — but shall suffer the 
loss of the reward promised to obedience, through the 
God appointed channels of the same. 

1. The appellations by which the Romish church 
is described, prove that it was never regarded of God 
as the church, and hence not able to confer that obe- 
dience that would entitle to the reward. 



in Uninspired History. 357 

As representing a personification o£ evil, it is called 
the "man of sin," and, looking to the destiny of the 
same, it is called the "son of perdition." Represent- 
ing the assumed religious character of Romanism, it 
is represented as "opposed to all that is called God or 
that is worshiped," and, as descriptive of its blasphe- 
mous pretensions, it is said that it has usurped "the 
temple of God, setting itself forth as God. " Describing 
the manner of its rise, it is called the "mystery of law- 
lessness," and the "lawless one," "whose coming is 
according to the working of Satan with all power and 
signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unright- 
eousness for them that are perishing." II Thes. 2:3, 
fd. There is nothing in all this that has the least re- 
semblance to the church of Christ, but everything to 
the contary. In Revelation, the Romish church as 
founded on the secular power of the Roman empire is 
called the "dragon," and the "beast," and, as possess- 
ing the subtility of Satan, is called the "old serpent" 
and the "Devil and Satan." The Romish church in its 
alliances with the state, and its propagation by the 
secular power of subjected kings, is called a "haklot," 
and, in this character, the "kings of the earth have 
committed fornication with her," by alliance of the 
state with a form of religion. 

The character of her service is described as "abomi- 
nations, even the unclean things of her fornication," 
and "blasphemies," even "blaspheming the name of 
God." In the character of her constituency, she is 
represented as being the "habitation of devils, and a 



358 Some Glimpses at the Church 

hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every un- 
clean and hateful bird." In her relation to the church 
of Christ, she is spoken of as "drunken with the blood 
of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus." In her relations to those deriving ordinances 
and ordination from her, she is called, "mystery, 
babylon the gkeat, the mother," and they in turn, 
as having received all that makes them churches from 
her, are called, "harlots and abominations of the 
earth." Thus is the Romish church described in the 
scriptures. No one in his sober moments, stripped of 
his sectarian prejudices, is prepared to believe that 
such was ever the church of Christ. Nor can any 
thoughtful one believe for one moment that any peo- 
ple coming out of such by reformation, can establish 
any valid claim to the ordinances and the church of 
Christ. That which will prove them to have the 
ordinances and to be the church of Christ, will prove 
as much for the Eomish church, in which event their 
claim is self -destructive. 

And more; no one writing from the standpoint 
of church reformation can do otherwise than claim 
that Romanism represents the church of Christ, and 
thus logically charge upon the cause of Christianity her 
character and crimes. And should it be thought 
strange that the tendency of such a course is to pro- 
duce infidelity and skepticism ? If the position of the 
"friends" of Christ charges upon him and his cause 
such enormities, need we be surprised that the world 
accepts it as the true philosophy of Christianity, and 



in Uninspired History. 359 

turn from such with disgust? If God is able to do no 
better than this view represents him as having done, 
then who will be credulous enough to believe any of 
his promises. 

The whole position is false and dishonoring to 
God, and should be abandoned by all his people at 
once. Why should one who loves God bring reproach 
on his cause, simply because they happen to have been 
reared in the belief of such things? And as the mat- 
ter of a man's destiny, with its glory or dishonor, is 
a personal concern, it becomes men to examine into 
their relations to the history of Christianity with 
prayerfulness and humility. 

2. Some historic statements that Baptist churches 
have existed from the time of Christ and the apostles to 
the present. It is not claimed that they are called 
Baptists. Names have usually been given to the church 
by others than herself. At different times and places 
the church is called after the place in which she is 
found to exist, or some brilliant leader, or some form 
of doctrine practiced. John was called the Baptist 
because of the form of doctrine he practiced, and just 
so in time the church came to be called Baptist because 
she baptized in contrast with sprinkling and pouring. It 
is not a name that identifies the church nor is it a name 
that proves succession. Wherever there was a people 
rejecting the ordinances of Rome, immersing believers 
only by the authority of the church, there was present 
then what is now called Baptist churches. This is 
what we contend for. Were there no other testimony 



360 Some Glimpses at the Church 

than the edicts of the pope of Eome against the 
rebaptized and the rebaptizers, these are all we need to 
establish our cause. The presence of rebaptism pre- 
supposes one or both of two things, viz., that when 
first baptized, the party was not a scriptural subject, or, 
that it was not done by a scriptural church. In these 
edicts, Eome recognizes the continued presence of a 
people who rejected her baptisms. It is mathematic- 
ally certain that that people was not any of the pedo- 
baptists, since they came out of Eome far this side of 
the history of most of these edicts, and since to reject 
Eomish baptisms would be to declare themselves 
unbaptized. It is equally certain that such as hold the 
doctrines of the reformation of Mr. A. Campbell, were 
not present in those remote ages to reject Eomish 
ordinances, since his movement originated in the pres- 
ent century. Nor has the practice of rebaptism been 
chargeable to any but such as are essential Baptists 
in practice, until within the present century. But says 
some : Did not the Baptists originate with The Mun- 
ster Eiots! No; many of the people connected with 
the riots were called Anabaptists. Upon this, Dr. 
Ford remarks, "The fact that Baptists denounced all 
connection of church and state, that a complete 
equality existed among their membership; that they 
believed in no sacraments, in the Eomanist and Luth- 
eran sense of that term, and in no official priesthood, 
was the reason for giving the socialists of that day, 
composed principally of the oppressed peasantry and 
laborers generally, the name of Anabaptists. It has 



in Uninspired History. 361 

been proved again and again that the leaders in the 
Munster riots were pedobaptists, and that the Baptists 
opposed taking up arms in any case except self-defense. 
The Munster troubles commenced in 1522, by Bernard 
Eotman Muncer, not a Baptist. It was the frantic 
efforts of the enslaved to throw off their fetters. It was 
the result of the general awakening of mind, aroused 
by the notes of freedom sounded out by Luther him- 
self." Brief Bapt. Hist., p. 62. 

Me, A. Campbell, in the Purcell Debate, page 77, 
remarks: " Every sect and individual, as I said before, 
is passive in receiving a name. Sectarian names are 
generally given in the way of reproach ; thus the dis- 
ciples were first called Christians at Antioch, most 
probably in derision, yet it was a very proper name. 
Call us what you please, however, it does not change 
nature or race. The disciples of Christ are the same 
race, call them Christians, Nazarenes, Galileans, Nova- 
tians, Donatists, Paulicians, Waldenses, Albigenses, 
Protestants, or what you please. A variety of desig- 
nations affects not the fact which we allege ; we can 
find an unbroken series of Protestants, a regular suc- 
cession of those who protested against the corruptions 
of the Roman church, and endeavored to hold fast the 
faith delivered to the saints, from the first schism in the 
year 250, A. D., to the present day; and you may apply 
to them what description or designation you please." 
Now Mr. Campbell tells us what people he means by 
this statement: "From the apostolic age to the present 
time, the sentiments of the Baptists and their practice 



362 Some Glimpses at the Church 

of baptism, have had a continued chain of advocates, 
and public monuments of their existence in every age 
can be produced." Maccalla Debate, p. 378. Thus, 
Mr. Campbell states what is the general concensus of 
history. Later in his life, while still admitting the 
truth of a succession of Baptists, and feeling the force 
of that truth as a mortal blow at restoration, he seeks, 
in a novel way, to transfer the succession to his move- 
ment. It is this: "This [that there are some worthy 
Baptists] exactly accords with the views of our breth- 
ren long since expressed — that as it was with the Jews, 
in the times of the Messiah and his apostles, so it is 
now with the Baptists. The nation, as such, continued 
to be the kingdom of Grod, until they rejected the 
offered salvation ; so the present kingdom of God was 
found amongst those who plead for faith, repentance, 
and baptism, as necessary to admission into the king- 
dom of grace, until the present call upon them to 
reformation. Since the rejection of that call by them, 
as a people, or so far as any of them have opposed the 
reformation, they are not of the kingdom of Grod; and 
especially such as have been immersed by them, having 
heard, before their immersion, the original gospel, are 
unworthy of the confidence of the brethren of the 
reformation." Mill. Harb., vol. 7, pp. 57, 58. Re- 
gardless of the absence of logic, and possessed of an 
immense partizan spirit, this shows, nevertheless, that 
Mr. Campbell still believed that Baptists were the orig- 
inal church. His novel way of transferring the succes- 
sion to his movement is as amusing as it is illogical 



in Uninspired History. 363 

and unscriptural. He concedes in this admission that 
his own movement is schismatic, and, therefore, with- 
out standing in the scriptures. 

"The Baptists have no difficulty, whatever, in 
tracing up their principles and their churches to the 
apostolic age. It has often been said by our enemies, 
that we originated in the German city of Munster, in 
1534. Lamentable must be the weakness or ignorance 
of such an assertion, come from whom it may. It were 
easy to cite eminent pedobaptist historians to refute 
this calumny." Bapt. Martyrs, p. 17. And, again: 
"Those who think to battle against the Baptists, as a 
modern reactionary, ephemeral sect, will find themselves 
greatly mistaken." Ibid., p. 19. Let us now examine 
into some Roman Catholic authority. 

Hosius was born 1504, and died 1579. He was made 
a cardinal in the Romish church in 1561, and was a 
part of the time president of the council of Trent, 1545- 
1563, convened more to consider the reformation, than 
other matters. In speaking of the Baptists he remarks : 
"If you behold their cheerfulness in suffering persecu- 
tion, then the Anabaptists run before all the heretics. 
If you have regard to number, it is likely that in mul- 
titude they would swarm above all others, if they were 
not grievously plagued and cut off with the knife of 
persecution. If you have an eye to the outward appear- 
ance of godliness, both the Lutherans and Zwinglians 
must needs grant that they far pass them. If you 
will be moved by the boasting of the word of God, 
these be no less bold than Calvin to preach; and their 



364 So??ie Glimpses at the Church 

doctrine must stand aloft — above all the glory of the 
world — must stand invincible above all power, because 
it is not their word, but the word of the living Grod." 
Orchard's Hist. For. Bapt., vol. 1, p. 364. No peo- 
ple are more prejudiced against the Baptists than are 
Catholics, yet this man, high in Catholic authority, 
admitted the existence of Baptists for twelve hundred 
years (see author of above), as constantly witnessing 
to the truth, even though sorely persecuted. Finally, 
we call attention to the testimony of two eminent and 
learned men, Dr. Ypeig and Rev. I. J. Dermont, 
appointed by royal authority to write the history of the 
Dutch Reformed (Presbyterian) church. They devote 
one chapter to the Baptists, and conclude it thus: "We 
have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly 
called Anabaptists, and, in later times, Mennonites, 
were the original Waldenses; and who have long, 
in the history of the church, received the honor of that 
origin. On this account, the Baptists may be consid- 
ered as the only Christian community which has stood 
since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian soci- 
ety which has preserved pure the doctrines of the gos- 
pel through all ages. The perfectly correct external 
and internal economy of the Baptist denomination tends 
to confirm the truth, disputed by the Romish church, 
that the reformation brought about in the sixteenth 
century was in the highest degree necessary ; and at the 
same time goes to refute the erroneous notion of the 
Catholics, that their communion is the most ancient." 
Bel. Ency., p. 796. 



in Uninspired History. 365 

This is a concession to the truth of history, that 
rises above the level of partizan prejudices, and con- 
cedes that which is certainly true. And why should 
our pedobaptists friends envy us this heritage! The 
philosophy, if not the spirit of such envy is; that to 
concede this truth at once destroys every claim they 
might set up to be regarded as churches of Christ. To 
concede the existence of the church apart from Roman- 
ism, would be to say that the reformers were not satis- 
fied with the same, and, therefore, rejected the church 
for the creature of their own hands. It is a life and 
death struggle, a church or no church struggle with 
them. To admit it, is to surrender to Baptists. This 
will not do. It should be the glory of every devout 
servant of Christ, that it is possible to trace the histor- 
ical permanence of the church of Christ apart from the 
enormities of the Eomish church. Why should anyone 
seek to precipitate on the cause of Christianity such a 
series of crimes, when both the word of God and the 
Eomish church herself recognizes the presence of the 
church throughout the entire period, protesting against 
such. But while the churches of reformation are seek- 
ing to blacken the character of those witnesses who 
sealed their testimony with their lives, the church still 
stands as the permanent fixture of the counsel of God. 
She still presses on, to hasten the coming of the bride- 
groom. No combination of powers can ever destroy 
her presence in the world, or supplant her place in the 
affections of Christ "who loved the church and gave 
himself for it." 



366 Some Glimpses at the Church 

When the earth is wrapped in millennial glory, and 
the redeemed are united in one family, one brotherhood, 
as in Eden at the beginning, then will the philosophic 
reader of history see clearly that it is due to the princi- 
ples for which Baptists have stood through all ages. 
This is not problematical. It is scriptural and the word 
of God can not be broken. In it, the history of the 
church begins, and through its inspired pages that his- 
tory unfolds the philosophy of God's purposes, until it 
ends in the final judgment and the separation of the 
righteous and unrighteous. 

W. R. Williams has said in his Lectures on the Phi- 
losophy of Baptist Principles: "When the inspired David 
represented the Son, yet to be incarnate, who, as Lord, 
was to receive universal and divine homage, aud all 
kingdoms, and all people, were warned that it was at 
their peril to withhold the loyal confession — even then 
that second psalm, brief as it was, gathered up the 
webs of the centuries, all dynasties, all revolutions, all 
discoveries, into one compact knot of the inevitable and 
divine purposes, and the irrefragable and divine ora- 
cles. 

"And when Paul, in his epistles, spoke of the 
Redeemer as the second Adam, and led back the 
thoughts of his readers to the first Adam, head of a 
common fall; and thence on to the manifest God, as 
the Lord and pledge of a common redemption in his 
character as the second Adam, the lines were surveyed 
for a philosophy of human history — a philosophy true, 
full, and divine. A course of rule that began in Eden 



in Uni7isj)ired History, 367 

hurries not, pauses not, till it rests in the judgment 
day, as the second Adam shall then administer the 
eternal sanctions, alike of his law and of his gospel. 
Paradise, Sinai, Calvary, dot the centuries as great 
points, and they are behind the whole household of 
man to the expectation of the final audit, as it shall 
come from the white throne, and the opened books. 
We 'spend' but God ' charges.' Man passes. Oppor- 
tunity passes. The age passes. But the right and 
duty and reckoning do not pass, and can not pass, 
because the word and the God may not pass away. Not 
one jot of the word, not one attribute of the God, per- 
fect, immutable, and immaculate. 

"We, as a Christian people, have, in the advantages 
of the time and land where our lot is cast, and in the 
memory and inspiring examples of the fathers who have 
preceded us, our new hopes suggested by each added 
week of life to the toiler, and by each avenue for benev- 
olence and usefulness and piety opening before us the 
furrow of the sower and the sickle of the reaper. 

"Gone are the fathers, but not their remembrance, 
or their influence, or our own indebtedness to God, for 
what the toils of these fathers earned, the tears of 
these fathers bathed, and the blood of those martyrs 
enriched, and the faithful cry of these witnesses com- 
mended. We have entered into the ample and conse- 
crated heritage, and the Lord is surveying, with a 
divine tenderness and care, each new enlistment of 
laborers on his acres, and in his vineyard; over which, 
and through its every inch, hovers the cloud of the 



368 Some Glimpses at the Church 

prayers which our honored predecessors sent up; 
and under its every clod lies the seed, and from its 
potential trunk grows the foliage of human history 
which they so patiently planted. The gospel presents a 
Savior of infinite sufficiency. The blood of his Cross 
has a perpetuity of influence outspreading itself from 
the past to the yet future eternity. In the purposes of 
the Father, surveying the certainty of its flow and the 
efficacy of its grace, it is that of the Lamb slain from 
before the foundation of the world." By it, the price 
paid for the church, the bride is to be cleansed from 
impurities, and in it is she to wash her robes and 
make them white, and when thus fitted for the com- 
panionship of her Redeemer, the earth shall pass away 
and the church be received up on high, there to be with 
Christ evermore. It is the duty, aud the blessed privi- 
lege, of all Christian people to become members of the 
one church, and thus in the spirit of loyalty to Christ 
hasten the consummation of the blessings for which he 
shed his precious blood. No heart that is loyal to 
Christ can look out over the divided and wasting con- 
ditions of Christian usefulness, but must feel an invol- 
untary prayer rise from his heart for the realization of 
the condition of things for which his Redeemer so 
earnestly prayed. But too often, selfishness, prejudice, 
false pride, and many other such like things prevent — 
otherwise good people — from doing that which the 
judgment approves to be right. There are too many 
people who are yet unable to rise above the conception 
of church membership as held by the Romish church, 



in Uninspired History. 369 

namely, that where there is no church membership, 
there can be no salvation. Reared in the belief of this 
unscriptural doctrine, and with vague conceptions of 
the New Testament idea of the church, such are moved 
to hatred rather than love, when the church character 
of the institution to which they belong is called in 
question. The cry goes up that you are seeking to un- 
christianize us. One can but pity such, come from 
whom it may. It requires no deep philosophy to 
understand that if the reformation (or restoration) of 
Mk. A. Campbell, of the present century, is a repro- 
duction of the New Testament idea of the church, then 
the church never had an existence until 1827. If the 
church had an existence prior to that date, then his 
movement is not a reproduction of the church, since 
nothing like it is known in history prior to the above 
date. And just so with regard to all other church 
organizations whose origin is perfectly well defined far 
this side of New Testament times. No intelligent rea- 
son can be assigned why anyone who believes in 
regeneration as prerequisite to baptism, and immersion 
as essential to baptism, should ever unite themselves 
with any other than the Baptist church. Such are 
essentially Baptists, and can not find a religious home 
in harmony with themselves among any other people 
on earth. If it should be asked why those believing 
thus should seek to unite with other people than Bap- 
tists, but one of two answers can be returned, (a) 
Such have been reared in prejudice against the Baptists, 
or (b) they are uninformed as to the doctrines taught 

24 



370 The Church of Christ. 

by Baptists. Christian life stands for at least two things : 
(a) The manifestation of the Christ life to a lost 
and perishing race. And (b) for the truth as given to 
us in the scriptures. Standing for such, it is more 
than evident that this can best be accomplished through 
the church of divine appointment. But this often 
requires much sacrifice, and not infrequently the sur- 
render of cherished associations. But it is a question 
of pleasing Grod, and rendering to him the most accept- 
able service possible. It is personal duty, and in it the 
soul should find its chiefest joy. And now as I lay 
down my pen on this the second day of January, 1897, 
I look across the flying years to the approaching judg- 
ment with no evil apprehensions of its fiery trials, and 
no forebodings of harsh sentence for the advocacy of 
the principles set forth in this little book. For these 
principles, many more loyal than the writer have 
given their lives, and have gone up as in chariots of 
fire to the marriage banquet in heaven. 



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